Fostering A Learning Environment In Your Business
Any time is good for making a change in your business, but the turn of the year gives everyone that extra boost of motivation they need. A company's New Year's resolution list can contain anything, but most recently, businesses are developing a particular interest in learning. With so many changes in the corporate world, leaders are realizing that the only way to thrive is by keeping up with industry innovations. But how do you get your employees to become lifelong learners who adapt to changes with ease? In this article, we share 5 insider tips to help your employees build daily learning habits and create a learning environment that will safeguard your business against low productivity and high attrition.
5 Tips To Build Daily Learning Habits
1. Involve The Interested Parties
More often than not, learning is not only essential for organizational success but also for employee satisfaction. In fact, a large percentage of employees consider learning opportunities crucial for their professional development and therefore are more likely to quit a job that doesn't help them grow. As a result, if you're considering investing in L&D next year, it's best to start by involving your employees in the conversation. Employ surveys, polls, and discussions on a group or personal level to figure out what your staff wants or needs to learn. What are their business goals, and how would they benefit from learning? Which skills do they need to develop? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
2. Support Employees In Their Learning Journey
Although in most cases, employees know what skills they need to develop to boost their performance, they still need their leader's support and guidance. Make sure to stay informed about the latest skills in your industry to help your employees train on the ones that will add the most value to your organization. It's also crucial that you create learning opportunities in the form of webinars, online training programs, mentorship projects, certifications, and more. Most importantly, keep in mind that learning opportunities must be available to all, regardless of their position or pay grade. Reserving employee training for right before someone transitions to a new position can lead to underprepared and overwhelmed leaders.
3. Remove Obstacles
Continuing on the topic of offering your employees support to build daily learning habits, you must also help them overcome the obstacles standing between them and learning. The most common issue employees face is time constraints. As a leader, it's your responsibility to modify work schedules so that employees don't feel pressured to complete their training while also tackling everyday tasks. To address this problem, you can use microlearning, which allows employees to fit training in their free time. In addition, all projects and platforms used for training in your organization must be intuitive so that the learning experience is seamless. Finally, you can create a subsidy project that financially supports team members who want to attend seminars or certification courses but are discouraged by the cost.
4. Leverage Teamwork
Apart from teaching employees about teamwork, collaboration, communication, conflict resolution, and much more, teams are also an excellent breeding ground for learning. Team members motivate each other to keep learning while simplifying new concepts through conversation and information exchange. What's more, learning in a team setting encourages a sense of accountability. For example, if someone has proclaimed to their team they are taking a certain training program, they are less likely to give up. In addition, by using forums, chats, and learning communities in general, employees can hold each other accountable for completing modules or achieving goals.
5. Reward Progress
What better way to encourage your employees to make new habits than by rewarding their steps in that direction? Reward employees who make an effort to become continuous learners with personal praise or a shout-out in your organization's internal communication channels. Such actions stir inner satisfaction and motivate employees to keep trying to achieve more goals. Gamified elements such as leaderboards and badges employees can display beside their name have also been shown to ignite friendly competition and boost learning. Finally, such tangible rewards help employees keep track of their progress and measure even smaller achievements.
Be The Change You Want To See
Actions speak louder than words. Therefore, it's important to remember that your employees will only be motivated to make a meaningful change if they see you doing your part. As the new year starts, make sure to actively show them how important learning and development are for you and your business by supporting them in their efforts, rewarding their achievements, and always searching for new growth opportunities. If you keep these tips in mind, there's no doubt that your employees will enter the new year with renewed enthusiasm to build daily learning habits and become better versions of themselves.
