Improving Workplace Culture Through eLearning
Culture is the "secret sauce" of successful businesses. Good culture encourages productivity, teamwork, and helps employees to feel secure, empowered, and safe. Poor culture, on the other hand, can cause stress and discontent in the workplace. Getting the right balance can be a challenge. Even if a company does an excellent job hiring employees, harassment, poor conduct, and communication issues will still pop up and compromise culture, making some employees feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
Companies need to step up and recognize these issues so that they can be addressed. But how common is poor conduct and harassment, and what can be done about it?
A Culture Of Bullying And Harassment
Although it’s not a topic that’s discussed very often, bullying and other inappropriate behavior don’t stop once a person leaves school. Workplace bullying is a real problem, affecting up to 75% of workers in one way or another. Furthermore, up to 19% of Americans have been victims of abuse at work. And it’s not just small companies without Human Resources that have this issue; large corporations often have toxic work cultures that make employees feel unsafe or uncomfortable.
One good example of this is Nike, a company with problems that reached all the way up to the executive offices. Many of Nike’s top leaders were accused of sexism in the office, creating a toxic culture of harassment and inappropriate behavior that made many women working at the company extremely uncomfortable. In other cases, employees were laid off with PowerPoint presentations and forced those with complaints to discuss them with HR in an open setting. Unfortunately, Nike is not the only company to maintain a culture of bullying and harassment, but it should serve as a blueprint of what not to do.
Workplace Mental Health Problems
Aside from being completely inappropriate and demeaning, bullying, sexism, harassment, and other types of poor conduct can have a major impact on employees’ mental health. Not only does mental health affect a person’s well-being, but it can also extend to their performance and ability to work on a team effectively. People who are harassed at work may start to develop stress, anxiety, or even depression. Although there are ways to improve mental health at work, it’s up to businesses to foster a supportive and positive work environment in the office.
How eLearning Can Help
Fixing a toxic workplace culture is a multifaceted process. There are many different steps an organization can take to ensure that employees modify and eliminate problematic behavior while enhancing communication and respect. One of those steps is improving education and awareness—something that can be accomplished using eLearning tools.
For example, an eLearning course can be used to train employees on proper conduct, without having to feel vulnerable or called out in a group classroom. eLearning can also be used to help the organization as a whole understand common mental health issues and how conduct can affect these conditions. Empathy, communication, and respect are skills that can be learned with the right attitude, curriculum, and environment.
eLearning curriculums can include online courses and training, quizzes, and even gamified learning. If eLearning is going to be effective for improving culture, however, the process of learning must be woven into the fabric of the culture itself. Learning needs to be expected, and employees must feel supported in implementing what they’ve learned. And where does that culture of learning need to start? At the top, of course.
Tips For Creating An eLearning Culture To Improve The Workplace
Many organizations that want to improve their culture and make employees feel more comfortable at work have trouble figuring out where to start. The good or bad news is that the best place to start is at the top. It’s important to get buy-in from senior management to set the tone for the entire organization.
One of the most important tips for companies when starting a culture of learning is this: incentivize, don’t demand. No one will absorb lessons on conduct and anti-bullying if they’re not willing and open to learn. Incentivizing the process will help ensure that everyone learns, even if they’re reluctant to embrace the change that comes with improved conduct. You can’t make everyone care about these issues, but with eLearning, you may just be able to make things better in your office.
