Science says that lifelong learning is the key to having a healthy mind and cognitive functioning. When applied to an organizational context, learning future-proofs your company against any potential technology, socio-economic and industry changes that may befall.
Looking at learning from a human resource perspective, you realize it’s inevitable to engage, inspire and push your workforce to the next level. But, no matter how much you try, your learning programs only work for the first few sessions.
Along the course, things fall out of place –
- There’s poor attendance
- Your employees find an excuse to skip training programs
- Managers aren’t on board
- They don’t allow their teams to participate
- You aren’t able to bring everyone together for a particular time
- You don’t have the bandwidth to maintain accurate reports and data to validate your training
What if we told you, all these bottlenecks can be cleared with one overarching strategy? In this guide, we give you tips and a tool to create an enjoyable, accountable, and autonomous learning culture that your employees will love. Keep reading to find out more.
Why is Now The Right Time to Emphasize Learning?
The economy is changing everywhere. Recession is looming on the horizon. For your company to survive the uncertain times ahead, it needs to be upskilled, resilient talent.
‘Survival of the fittest’ applies to business, and only those companies that alter their strategy on the go, adapt, and upskill have a chance to thrive in the coming years. With technology changes astounding us every day, your employees need to up their game, or they won’t be relevant to your business.
To keep your employees together, and ensure high morale and productivity even during uncertain times, you need to emphasize and invest in learning and encourage employees to take up new skills.
It’s no surprise that companies have to reskill at least 1 billion people by 2030 to adapt to workplace changes. 54% of companies have a difficult time finding skilled employees. Leadership teams have begun realizing the importance of a skilled workforce, to ensure results and are willing to fix its roots.
Degrees aren’t as important as they were before. The business world is moving towards a skill-based hiring trend, which is here to stay. The only way to win amidst the fierce competition is to upskill your people continuously.
Studies say that 50% of all employees will require reskilling by 2025.
Is your company fully prepared to take on this massive reskilling intervention?
What Do Your Employees Feel About Learning at Work?
Before you start framing a strategy, take time to identify what is restricting your employees from learning at work. These pain points will show the root cause for you to fix.
Some of the most commonly cited reasons are:
- “Training programs are boring”
- “I don’t have time”
- “I have targets to reach, I can’t spend time learning”
- “I know everything I need to do my job”
If you look closely, their feedback will reveal the areas you need to redefine:
- Choice of programs
- Mode of delivery
- Quality of trainers
- Motivation to attend and follow through
Take a survey in your organization and identify the gaps. And, let’s break them down one by one.
Break Learning Roadblocks with the Right Tool – Top 8 Tips
Now that you know what’s ailing your organization, let’s break down these roadblocks to inch closer to your org-wide learning goal.
#1 Motivate Employees from Within
Announce a reward program for achieving milestones. Carve out a clear learning-assessment-succession plan for employees to see the purpose of learning. Encourage the leadership team to divulge the company’s mission and how each employee’s learning will only propel growth.
If your policy allows, fix a monetary or non-monetary reward for achieving high-level milestones.
With a tool like FlexiEle, you can integrate rewards and recognition into training and seamlessly manage the rewarding process.
#2 Let Your Employees Choose the Courses and Mode For Themselves
Giving the choice to your employees’ hands will only do you good. Create an easy-to-use system and workflow where your employees can view all available training and choose what interests them, or nominate suitable teammates for training programs.
Let employees also choose the mode of delivery they prefer – online or offline, or blended. Simply offering these options show employees you care about them, and will be inclined to attend the scheduled sessions.
With FlexiEle’s learning management system, this system is already prepared for you – your employees can now view all training programs enlisted, and pick their favorites.
#3 Grant Access to Managers to Monitor Their Team’s Progress
For job, role, and function-specific courses, create a workflow that empowers managers to view courses, assign and nominate relevant ones to their team, track progress, and evaluate assignments. This way, they can hold their team responsible and motivate them if they venture off track.
FlexiEle’s LMS grants access to managers in accessing and managing their team’s entire learning lifecycle.
#4 Evaluate How Employees Apply Learning to Work
Integrate learning to performance and see how well your employees apply to learn to work. This is the surest way to assess ROI on your learning and development efforts. However, make sure to follow a structured method to evaluate performance outcomes in relation to training.
Why worry about integrating these two core modules when FlexiEle has already done it for you? You can track the progress of your team’s learning and parallelly update against their performance goals in the PMS module. No more hassle. FlexiEle’s LMS has simplified it all for you.
#5 Plan Grade, Level, Function Specific Training Programs
Curate training programs based on expected competencies for each role, level, and function. Take past performance data, and check with the reporting managers and modules focusing on honing the most required competencies. For outstanding performers, assign programs that prepare them to take up future roles.
FlexiEle’s LMS and PMS integration connects your training programs directly to each employee’s competencies, so no progress goes unnoticed.
#6 Make Learning a Delightful Experience
Bring all participants of a course together and let their energy rub off one another. Make sure to give a fair opportunity to remote and on-site employees. Make learning and knowledge-sharing sessions a chance to improve your employee morale.
Include highly interactive games, visuals, and activities that take your employees by surprise, so that your employees wait for the next learning session. Take time to evaluate trainers, ask for referrals, and bring state-of-the-art programs to your premises.
#7 Ensure Airtight Trainer & Logistics Management
All your trainer management, payment and evaluation can be stored in one place and managed effectively. Yes, FlexiEle’s LMS module helps you manage training location, venue readiness, trainer effectiveness, payment and all other training coordination simply with an inbuilt section within the LMS module.
Maintain a single source of truth for all your training and trainer-related data with FlexiEle’s LMS module.
#8 Assess, Take Feedback, and Maintain Records for Decision-Making
Evaluate your candidates’ progress regularly, ensure periodic assessments are conducted, and results are stored and analyzed from time to time. Store A-Z learning-related, performance, and effectiveness data, extract custom reports, and aid leadership in decision-making right on time.
Pro Tip
It takes a holistic approach to introduce an intervention in your company. Get a head start to inculcating a learning culture with an advanced, all-in-one tool like FlexiEle – we make future-proofing easier for you.
