As one of the leading staffing agencies in Kansas City, Morgan Hunter knows when times get tough, one of the first items on the chopping block is continuing education benefits. However, cutting out training and development opportunities for employees can have long-term negative effects. Not only can a lack of such opportunities impact an organization’s ability to innovate, but they can also influence recruiting and retention efforts.
In fact, according to experts, for employees, a culture of learning is an investment in their worth and a powerful incentive to remain at the company. Investing in employee education can help retain talent and intellectual property at a time when there’s stiff competition for both.
With that said, what are some steps you can take to create a culture of learning within your organization? Here’s a look:
Make learning opportunities available to all employees.
An increasingly skilled workforce is one of the keys to being competitive. So it certainly pays to offers opportunities for all employees – at all different levels, not just those in management – to improve their knowledge and enhance their skill set. And don’t just decide on what opportunities to offer; look to your people first for input on the topics they most want to learn about.
Use formats that fit with people’s schedules.
Too often training does little more than use up people’s time and make them feel like they are falling farther behind. Instead, use a training format that makes it easy for people to learn. For instance, brown bag lunches are a great format for training opportunities at work. Employees are essentially multi-tasking – eating and learning – and, as a result, feel it’s a more productive use of their time. In addition, the format is long enough to offer a solid introduction to a topic, while not so long that people begin to lose focus.
Learn from mistakes.
An important part of creating a culture of learning is a willingness to learn from experience; to be able to evaluate performance, admit to mistakes, and take decisive action to move ahead. That’s why it’s important to evaluate every project and initiative at the end – and honestly assess what went right, what went wrong, and why it went wrong. It’s important to avoid finger pointing during the process and instead try to diagnose the situation and garner new insights from it. Also, employees shouldn’t fear retaliation for offering insight and opinions. Instead, they should be encouraged to give their honest opinions and engage in frank debates.
Developing a good workplace learning culture takes a significant investment of energy and resources. But it is well worth the effort in the long run.
Do you need help hiring for your learning culture? Call Morgan Hunter. As one of the leading staffing agencies in Kansas City, we can give you access to the high quality talent you need.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.