One of the major reasons employees leave their current position is lack of opportunity and stagnant career growth. If you work to create a learning-based culture, rooted in personal and professional development, you could help your employees feel more fulfilled. Here are a few ways your company can invest in building a culture around learning.
Enable Professional Growth
The strongest source of talent often comes from within an organization. By emphasizing the professional growth and development of your existing employees, you are essentially training them for the leadership roles you need to fill in the coming months and years. Growing your talent, from the ground up, requires investing in internal training, executive coaching, cross-functional experiences, job rotations, external training, and participation in both global and regional assignments. It is these individuals who will make a difference for your company in the long run. Reward loyalty with loyalty and make sure you have the talent you need.
Incentivize Extended Education
Going back to school can seem like a huge lift for employees who already work full time and who have bills to pay. Taking a break from their career often simply isn’t an option. But continuing to invest in the latest technologies and industry processes is an ever-present need for companies. The two needs seem to be conflicting until companies take some ownership of reeducating their workforce. They can do this through tuition reimbursement programs or incentives for those employees who are willing to dip back into the academic sphere for the sake of staying relevant in their field. Taking the edge off of high costs for educational programs not only enable employees to further their own education, but also support the learning culture that you are looking to build.
Incorporate Micro-Learning Opportunities into the Job
Training or learning opportunities that are broken out into small, digestible chunks are more approachable for busy employees. Offering these “micro” learning opportunities shows that you know that your teams are busy, but that you also know that you all can benefit from learning new skills. Lunch and Learns, ad hoc videos, or even “learn at your own pace” courses are great ways to bring a culture of learning every day into your workplace.
Emphasize Soft Skills
Everyone has room to grow when it comes to soft skills. These are those communication or relationship-building skills that actually make people really good at their jobs. But they’re often swept under the rug when it comes to any official training program. Think about programs like Crucial Conversations and Managing Up for great soft skill training seminars that can really uplevel the quality of the work, no matter what your business is focused on. Learning new soft skills, or improving the ones you already have, can make a big difference in the overall success of your team and the projects they work on.
For more advice on building a culture of learning within your business, connect with the teambuilding experts at Bergman Brothers today.
