Steps To Build A Learning Culture In Your Workforce
Publié le 10 January 2022
Following the steps to build a learning culture in your workplace will encourage employees to grow, support each other and support quality work.
Learning is the essence of growth, and unless your team gets a sense of growth, your path to success may not be achievable. This is why it is so important to follow the steps to build a learning culture in your workforce.
Creating a learning culture in your workforce is not a one-day task or merely a policy enforcement decision. It is an ongoing process that requires concentrated efforts from both sides – the company as well as the employees who make up the workforce.
The success of your organization depends highly on how sincerely your workforce contributes to achieving company goals. About 94% of people reported staying loyal to the company for a longer time if they felt they were able to develop in their careers. You can help to keep your employees constantly motivated if you adapt to the paradigm shift that focuses on building a learning culture in the workplace.
There are numerous steps to build a learning culture in your workforce. We will explore them in detail to learn how they can be implemented in your organization.
Understanding the Concept of a Learning Culture
Before we dive deep into the steps to build a learning culture in your workforce, it is important to have clarity about this concept first.
The notion of learning culture is not easy to define in one statement. Having a strong learning culture in your workforce means includes the following:
- Developing the skills and knowledge of the workforce through various mediums like training courses, seminars, employee engagement surveys, etc.
- Keeping your workforce updated with the knowledge that would help them grow as individuals and professionals in this fast-paced and skills-based time.
- Motivating your employees by generating the feeling of self-improvement and value-addition to their knowledge.
- Encouraging the workforce to achieve their desired growth goals by supporting required resources and learning enhancement tools.
- Syncing the employee growth to their company’s goals for improved performance and better efficiency.
- Evaluation of employee’s growth and offering required motivation when needed.
- Allowing the workforce to learn at their own pace and offering better opportunities to encourage self-learning.
- Focusing on a personalized approach towards workforce learning to help them enhance their skills.
Steps to Build a Learning Culture in Your Workforce
We have already mentioned that creating a learning culture in your workforce is not a single-day or single-step task. There are numerous actions required from employees at all levels in order to ensure its efficient implementation. Let’s take a closer look at the steps to build a learning culture in your workforce.
Don’t Delay – Start from Day 1
As per a study done by Deloitte, the majority of young workers believe that if they find a work environment with ample learning and growth opportunities, they will stick with the company for more than a decade.
These workers will form a majority of the workforce in the next decade, so it is important to welcome them into your organization with great learning opportunities. An effective intern training program is an effective way to start developing a learning culture from the moment new employees are on-boarded.
Showing employees from the start that they can expect learning and growth in your organizational environment would help them naturally mold to your work culture. For example, your team management software could include special programs for interns to help them initiate self-learning while providing dedicated time and resources to follow these programs.
Active Involvement of Top Management is a Prerequisite
Forming any type of learning culture within an organization requires sincere efforts from top-level management.
You must be the kind of leader that inspires employees to follow your example! The learning culture often trickles down from top to bottom. You can also use various learning management systems to develop and implement a learning culture in an effective way that does not disrupt the workplace.
An effective way to motivate your workforce to embrace the new learning culture is leading by example. Showing them how it’s done and why it is so important would naturally make it more likely that they would successfully adapt to this new concept.
A Defined Time Dedicated to Learning
As the saying goes, there is a time for work and a time to play! Do not try to make employees to do work-related learning during their free time. Even though the pandemic has changed remote workplace practices, you need to ensure that your learning sessions are given adequate importance. If your workforce follows the training sessions or attends seminars as homework requiring minimal effort and attention, you cannot expect them to learn sufficiently from it.
You cannot expect them to put in their work hours and then work on self-learning or self-improvement in an exhausted condition. They are already suffering from work fatigue, and another task would just make things worse, even leading to burnout. Set a special time for learning or, better yet, give employees the flexibility to choose their own learning time when they feel mentally fresh and capable of learning effectively.
Doing it the Fun Way
Learning as a chore would just become another boring part of the job. Make learning more exciting by using games, competition, and similar gamification techniques. These can help to keep employees happy while imparting important knowledge. It is one of the best ways to get their undivided attention.
This can make learning even more effective because employees actually look forward to these learning sessions, instead of viewing them as another task to complete as part of their work day. Instead, these learning sessions are a welcome break from their regular duties.
Adapting Various Techniques to Promote Learning Culture
There are numerous techniques to help you promote a learning culture in your workforce. You can choose from various LMS platforms to assist you with training and development sessions. Organizing seminars, group problem-solving, one-on-one mentoring, are also very effective in promoting a learning culture in your workforce.
Don’t shy away from blending various video sessions and online training methods. Ask your workforce what works best for them, and then put their thoughts and recommendations into practice.
Rewards offer Higher Motivation
Learning and knowledge enhancement are forms of rewards. However, offering something more materialistic would be a great motivation. Many IT companies link rewards to the completion of learning, and when an employee completes a particular learning course they are rewarded with bonuses and certificates.
Analysis and Feedback
While all the above steps are great to get your workforce excited to start the learning process, it is important to analyze their performance and offer genuine feedback. Just recall when you set out to start your own business from scratch and then built it up with constant analysis and feedback. The same goes with your team!
It might work wonders for your organization when your training managers are able to pinpoint the areas for improvement while also identifying the strong traits of your workforce.
Giving them honest feedback would allow them to work on specific areas and bring more improvement with better learning. It would eventually contribute to the organization’s growth since your workforce would now be more focused on the required areas of improvement.
Mentoring
Developing one-on-one rapport is an excellent way to help build a learning culture in your workforce. When you get to know your employees at a personal level, you get a better understanding of their strong points as well as their flaws. Mentoring them towards self-improvement through learning is a great way to establish an effective learning culture in your workforce.
Benefits of Building Learning Culture in Workplace
Why bother learning the steps to build a learning culture in the workplace if you are not sure how it would help your organization? Let’s say, you put in a lot of effort in starting an LLC. Your organizational growth would highly depend on the performance of the output of your workforce. And unless you focus on creating a learning culture in the workplace, you cannot expect them to perform at their best. Here are some advantages to consider:
Improvement in Employee Engagement
As per a study, about 80% of the employees believe they will be better engaged when offered ample learning and growth opportunities. This figure should push you to think about the effectiveness of learning culture in the workplace.
Additional research offered better clarity by concluding that organizational learning culture positively affects organizational commitment.
By giving your employees what they expect, you can anticipate higher engagement towards their designated roles.
Increased Job Satisfaction Resulting in Reduction in Employee-Turnover
A recent study clearly states that there is a direct relationship between the learning culture of the organization and the employee turnover rate. Employees working remotely feel satisfied with their work and the organizations they work for when they are offered all the tools required for their growth.
Every organization strives to retain its human resources. The time and effort put into training your workforce is worth more than getting a replacement. You can ensure that employees do not leave your organization because of poor work-life balance by offering learning opportunities and a chance to grow.
Gives Your Organization a Competitive Advantage
We live in a competitive business environment, where the continued success of an organization is highly dependent on the innovation and knowledge base brought into it by employees. When your organization offers ample growth and learning opportunities to its workforce, you help attract the most qualified candidates who prioritize these factors when considering joining a company.
Final Thoughts
Building a learning culture is a long-term process and should be a part of the long-term vision of every company.
It would have been clear by now that building a learning culture in your workforce is neither a one-person job nor a single-day task. Consistent and sincere efforts are the best ways to become an organization that values learning, uses it to reach business goals and create a strong environment for employees.
