7 Tips for Encouraging Employee Learning and Development

  In the modern workplace, employees continue to learn and develop-both professionally and personally, with a focus on their behavior and competencies. We were already aware of the importance of this, and the COVID-19 crisis has significantly reinforced this understanding. Yet implementation often stalls when it comes to putting these concepts into practice on the job. This is despite the fact that encouraging learning and development-or even behavioral change-among employees is entirely possible. We’ve listed seven closely interrelated success factors.

From wanting to actually doing

Many employers and employees are now familiar with the benefits. When employees remain actively engaged in learning and their professional development, it leads to greater job satisfaction, job security, and career opportunities. Numerous studies also show that these employees are more loyal, motivated, and productive. Moreover, it is a key prerequisite for, for example, enhancing long-term employability.

📊 Impact of COVID-19 on learning	Before COVID-19	After the pandemic
CEOs who see value in lifelong learning	29%	70%

So the will is there, but creating a “learning organization” doesn’t always turn out to be easy in practice. Often, high workloads act as a barrier, preventing employees from “ever getting around to” a learning program, or they aren’t sufficiently encouraged and supported to continue developing. How can this be achieved? These success factors can help right away.

1. Increase and facilitate self-direction

In practice, fostering self-direction among employees has proven to be the crucial factor for companies that have successfully become learning organizations. However, this arises from an interaction between employer and employee. It’s not just a matter of placing responsibility on employees, but also of providing them with adequate support.

2. Strengthen self-awareness

Employers can effectively facilitate employees’ awareness and self-management with practical, accessible tools. In addition to providing greater self-awareness regarding their current situation, online tools can, for example, help employees gain a clearer picture of their long-term development path.

3. Consider 360-Degree Feedback

A concrete example of a powerful tool for increasing self-awareness is implementing 360-Degree Feedback. After all, good feedback is extremely valuable for fostering self-awareness and employee development.

Feedback Provider	Valuable insights about
Colleagues	Collaboration, team dynamics, communication
Manager	Performance, potential, areas for development
(Internal) customers	Service orientation, results orientation
Subordinates	Leadership style, coaching, inspiration

 

4. Watch out for fear of failure!

When organizational changes require different learning or development behaviors, it’s important to be aware of a major pitfall. It lies within our brains. But you can also put these principles to work:

• Inform and prepare employees well in advance
• Let people acclimate safely first
• Connect changes to people’s deepest motivations (the WHY)
• Focus on WHY someone actually does something

5. Adapt to different conversation styles

To facilitate effective conversations between employees and managers during changes or learning and development processes, it’s important to keep the different conversation cycles in mind.

6. Provide appropriate learning opportunities

It may sound obvious at first, but be sure to provide appropriate learning opportunities when it comes to actually facilitating learning and development.

Learning format	Suitable for	Advantages
E-learning	Individual knowledge acquisition	Flexible, scalable, self-paced
Classroom-based	Practitioners, team learning	Interaction, immediately applicable
Peer learning	Knowledge sharing, best practices	Accessible, context-rich
Webinars	Updates, inspiration	Efficient, wide reach

7. Give employees a meaningful purpose

In a thriving “learning organization,” many of the success factors just mentioned-ideally-are closely intertwined. After all, there can be no self-direction without self-awareness. And there can be no enriching learning journey without appropriate learning opportunities.

 Frequently Asked Questions:

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