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 ideas 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 aware of 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, increasing sustainable employability. Research from Tilburg University also shows that it encourages older employees to continue working longer in a way that is enjoyable for them. Awareness of the benefits and necessity has grown significantly since the COVID-19 crisis, including among employers. Worldwide, a substantial majority of CEOs (70 percent) now recognize the value of lifelong learning. Before the COVID-19 crisis, this figure was alarmingly low (29 percent), as shown by this international study. So the willingness is there, but creating a “learning organization” does not always prove easy in practice. Often, high workloads act as a barrier, preventing employees from “ever getting around to” a learning program, or they are not sufficiently encouraged and supported to continue developing. How can this be achieved? These success factors can provide immediate help.

1. Enhance 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 effectively facilitating them. This often begins with raising awareness, establishing a good cycle of dialogue, and ensuring accessible and appropriate development opportunities. So it takes more than just launching an “Online Academy.” Ensure clear awareness and communication from the employees’ perspective. What’s in it for them? Consider not only their current role but also career advancement opportunities, job satisfaction, or more personal motivations and drivers. This shifts the perception of learning and development from a sense of “having to” to a desire to do so.

2. Strengthen self-awareness

Employers can effectively facilitate employees’ awareness and self-direction with practical, accessible tools. In addition to providing greater self-awareness of their current situation, online tools can, for example, offer a clearer picture of an employee’s long-term development path-and what’s needed to get there. Most organizations now use online assessments to support the development needs of employees or teams.

3. Consider 360-Degree Feedback

A concrete example of a powerful tool for increasing self-awareness is leveraging 360-Degree Feedback. After all, good feedback is extremely valuable for greater self-awareness and employee development. It’s not just their own insights that matter, but also those of relevant people in their environment. Think of colleagues, a manager, or, for example, (internal) clients. By drawing more broadly on employees’ professional circles, performance and development opportunities come into focus in a meaningful and accessible way. The “360 degrees” represent the perspectives from which feedback is received regarding, for example, skills, personality, abilities, and motivation. The questionnaires can be tailored to different competency levels and are often used to foster a productive dialogue between employees and managers or to facilitate a modern, customized performance review cycle.

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. At first, changes often immediately encounter resistance in people. This is because, when we experience change, the same parts of our brain are activated as when we think about death. “A change-even a positive one-is primarily viewed by our brains as a loss. That triggers thoughts of mortality, because death is the ultimate loss,” says American researcher Professor James R. Bailey of George Washington University. “When thoughts of death are subconsciously triggered, a whole series of defense mechanisms kicks in to protect our identity, routines, and competencies.” But you can also leverage these principles, for example, by informing and preparing employees in a timely manner. This underscores the importance of good communication-in this case, to allow people to acclimate safely first. Then the brain can adapt flexibly, because, in fact, the brain is constantly changing. The key is to influence this process positively. This can be achieved by connecting changes to employees’ deepest essence and motivations (the “WHY” from Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle model). Beyond WHAT someone does and HOW they do it, what ultimately matters most is WHY someone truly does something. With that awareness, people can consciously work on their development, and their brain structure is positively influenced. HR can facilitate this by seeking methods that help employees and managers consciously reflect on this core question.

5. Adapt to the Different Types of Conversations

To facilitate effective conversations between employees and managers during times of change or throughout learning and development processes, it’s important to keep the various conversation cycles in mind. After all, in a complete conversation cycle, they engage in different types of conversations (such as Bila+ and development or annual reviews), each at different times and with a different purpose. A (digital) development cycle can facilitate individual or team development. The starting point is usually the job classification system and the job profiles within an organization. The principles of the conversation cycle are built around these. Objectively designed questionnaires can help bring the conversations up to the right level quickly and in a well-founded manner. Read more about the different feedback cycles here.

6. Provide Appropriate Learning Opportunities

It may sound logical at first, but you must also provide appropriate learning opportunities when learning and development actually need to be facilitated. Across an entire organization, this often involves a diverse range of options, tailored to each target group and to what individual employees want to learn. After all, different people learn in different ways. Not every learning path is suitable for everyone. Therefore, give careful consideration to the learning methods and formats offered. In some cases, an accessible e-learning course may suffice, while in other situations, frontline workers may prefer to learn together in a classroom setting. Discuss this and tailor the learning offerings carefully to the various learning needs. In an online learning environment, assessments can also be offered to increase self-awareness and self-direction. Don’t forget the potential of internal knowledge sharing among colleagues. Don’t underestimate how much knowledge, experience, and expertise exists within your organization. This can be shared through, for example, internal webinars, training sessions, or knowledge-sharing sessions. Or choose a format that addresses frequently asked questions. This can relate to learning and development or simply to the substantive knowledge and experience available internally.

7. Give employees a meaningful purpose

In a thriving “learning organization,” many of the success factors just mentioned-if done right-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. An important underlying success factor is that employees are given a clear goal to work toward. To achieve this, align the organization’s goal with an employee’s professional-and ideally also personal-goals. Often, the organization’s goal and strategy are clear, but sometimes they need to be better communicated to employees. Employees themselves are often initially a bit unsure about their own goals. To address this, assess the extent to which their talents, motivations, and interests can be aligned with the goals of the organization or their team. Here, too, 360-Degree Feedback can likely be very useful.