Do You Fully Understand the Importance of Providing Learning and Development Opportunities?
LinkedIn’s 2020 Workforce Learning Report, indicates that 94% of employees will stay with a company longer if there are investments in developing their learning. Although all generations shared a desire to continue their learning and development, younger generations had an even greater interest. The LinkedIn report states that one quarter of Gen Z and Millennials say that learning is what makes them happy at work and would be the number one reason for leaving if this was lacking.
Stay or Go
We can’t underestimate this research. It is well documented the many challenges organizations have had in finding skilled workers. Once an organization does find these new employees, it is critical to provide continuous learning and development opportunities for them or they will go elsewhere. Unfortunately, some managers still express concern at the cost of learning. The key question is, what is the cost of keeping employees that we do not provide learning opportunities for? If employees stay regardless of the offer of learning opportunities, are they still learning and growing? How engaged are they in the workplace?
Impact of Engagement
Another key indicator of the critical nature of providing learning opportunities, is the Gallup research on engagement. Gallup have found that 20% of employees Globally are engaged at work. Elements of engagement have been defined to include clarity of expectations, opportunities for development and one’s opinions being listened to at work. Basically, Gallup have found that engaged employees are involved in and enthusiastic about their work and workplace. In our experience, all organizations are looking to have an engaged work culture, but then why are only 20% succeeding?
Providing Time to Learn
It is not enough to provide continuous options for personal development, we need to also ensure that time is set aside to make this happen. When development opportunities are offered, a clear window of time for the employee to clear their responsibilities and focus on their learning must be provided. This will free an individual from the day-to-day pressures of their job to focus on learning, as many employees feel they do not have time for learning.
Let’s not Forget Practice Opportunities
Much emphasis has been put on the return on investment of learning, however there is nothing much to measure if we have not provided opportunities to practice and apply the learning in a meaningful way. It is critical to require practice and application of these new skills in a safe work environment (removing fear of criticism or failure). Along with practice, individual leadership coaching needs to be provided so that the employee has clarity of expectations and to see if they are demonstrating the new skill as required. This step is critical to create engagement and ensure behavior change. To a learner, it will seem insincere or hypocritical if we are providing learning, yet never speaking of the learning content again when the person returns to the job. When this happens, the investment made by the organization, will not be realized, and it can cause more harm to the organization. Employees become disengaged and develop a jaded mindset believing that each new learning opportunity will just be the new flavor of the month, but nothing will really change.
How will you ensure your next learning initiative is not seen as just another flavor of the month? Stay tuned for our next blog. “Creating Opportunities to Apply New Learning”.
