A team management approach that inspires managers to make way for consistent learning opportunities for their team members is termed Continuous Learning. Unfortunately, amid the daily commotion, our attempts at learning take a back seat. But with the undeniable benefits of continuous learning staring at our faces today, it has become compulsory for managers to embrace continuous learning and upskill the workforces for a better, faster, and more efficient performance ahead. But the question is how?
Here’s how you can start establishing a continuous learning culture in your workplace –
Encourage the kind of learning that is directed towards self. Instead of designing learning content for your teams, encourage them to give self-directed learning a try. Please make sure you allocate specific time slots for your employees to attend workshops, take up online courses, or indulge in their research activities. Provide them with the required tools to use those tools to look for solutions whenever they face any complications. Also, you can consider providing mock scenarios for your teams to practice independently and upskill themselves.
Normalize celebrating achievements, big or small. It goes without saying that no one can succeed in a day. You need to keep pushing further and reflect on your standing at regular intervals. To build an organizational culture of continuous learning, you need to push your employees to figure out the skills they need for achieving the set goals and continue pursuing that. More than completing the stipulated number of training sessions, the impact those sessions have on your employees is crucial. Once you shift your focus towards that, you make your employees feel valued, and the organization evolves. Assessing the said evolution will help bridge the skills gaps and have an actual picture of the aforementioned impact.
Draw employee attention towards the organizational learning opportunities by incentivizing them. Reports say that the attrition rate spikes up when organizations fail to provide sufficient learning opportunities to the employees. Similarly, building the required awareness of the current learning opportunities is also essential. So, make the opportunities and their significances known and then decide how you can draw your employees’ attention towards them. Incentives pique interest for sure, but there are different motivation triggers for different individuals. The key here is open communication. Only when you communicate can you find out which incentive works for which person.
Hand out tailor-made learning programs or formats keeping the goal in mind. One program can never be a perfect fit for every employee if you offer them something meaningful and worthy. But, again, without proper interaction, you will not be aware of your employees’ requirements. So, communication will play a key role here too. Once you figure out the requirements, you can hand out tailor-made learning programs to your employees and make continuous learning adaptable between them.
So start encouraging your employees to focus on continuous learning — today!
