How to create a culture of learning in your business.
Creating a culture of learning in your business can be integral to its success. Continuous development of your team will not only create a more engaged workforce, but will avoid skills gaps, boost productivity and increase staff retention.
Research shows that companies with engaged staff outperform those without by a staggering 202% and in a recent survey, over 70% of respondents indicated that job-related training influenced their decision to stay at their job.
Formal learning only gives us around 25% of what we use in our jobs. Most learning and development in the corporate world is very traditional and still done using an instructor, which has proven ineffective in engaging teams and helping people retain information.
With the majority of workers wanting career growth though, how do we create a culture of learning which promotes effective development and continuous improvement?
1. Lead by example
Leaders are key influencers in an organisation. What you do as a manager will have a strong influence on the behaviour of your team. Normalise learning; share books you’ve read, talk about the training you’ve taken and feed down new learnings which would also benefit the team.
2. Learn from each other
Reinforce that learning is a two-way street. Most teams will be made up of people with different strengths and skillsets. Encourage sharing of ideas, collaboration and informal exchange of knowledge.
3. Practical learning
Learning from experience is a really powerful way to help people develop. When your team learn on the job actively, rather through a passive process, they are more engaged in learning as they are able to immediately apply knowledge and solve problems.
4. Reward learning
By providing time and space to learn, supporting your employee’s curiosity and actively encouraging personal and professional improvement, you strongly reinforce a company’s culture for development. This could be through incentive schemes, praise or recognition of their learning success.
5. Learning is ever-present
Encourage your team to identify learning opportunities during the normal course of their work. Great lessons come from mistakes, encourage employees to solve problems themselves or ask for help from other team members rather than someone else doing it for them; encourage creativity and the harvesting of new ways of doing things as a way to continuously improve.
If you want to find out more or how Professional Apprenticeships can help create a culture of learning for your business, get in touch – we’re happy and ready to help!
Written by Lydia Sherlock
Business Relationships Executive
