Creating a learning culture

As the Chinese proverb states, "Learn till old, live till old", no matter how old one is, there is always more learning or studying left to do.

Corporate Executives are empathizing on the ability an employee is to adapt in the rapid development in the current workforce. Employees on the other hand, are continuously trying to learn and grow while being on a job. The opportunity for training and development has become one of the most popular benefits that candidates are looking at when looking for a job.

Research shows that as technology advances, approximately half of the jobs available in the market will be automated, thus emphasizing the importance of employee's learning to keep up with the advancement. 

Even though organizations understand the concept of encouraging constant learning, but it's often the execution part that is tedious. In order for companies to create an effective learning environment, one can consider taking these few steps below.

Skills VS Conduct

Skill is usually teachable to individuals be it online or offline and could be assessed later. This can be done by conducting lessons or workshops to teach employees with the skill required and conducting a test after to measure their level of understanding.

Whereas conduct which means how one should react when faced a situation, which is difficult to be taught as it everyone already have different approach when dealing with different situations. Instead of commanding your employees to behave in a certain manner, one can emphasis on the importance of why the behavior should be implemented.

It's about the Knowledge, Skills & Abilities (KSAs)

In order for learning to positively influence the culture, organizations should encourage employees to improve on their Knowledge, Skills and Abilities.

Different individuals take different duration to adapt to absorb the new skill that they are impart with, it will definitely take some time to put the skill to action. After employees managed to incorporate the skills they learnt, it will eventually become their habit to act in the way that was being taught.

Be encouraging

Managers should take lead and show others that they understand how the learning culture operates and why it is being implemented. Top executive should make sure that the objectives of learning are synced with the business goals and encourage employees not to be afraid when faced with failure as it would just be a part of learning and growing with the company.

Communicate

Each individual in the company should be reassured that the value of learning is not only beneficial to the organization but also to themselves as well.

By putting up posters or sending notices to employees might not be the best way to convey the message to them, HR department should actively engage employees to share about the philosophy about learning and encourage more opportunities to grow.

Customize your platforms

Currently there are many learning materials available that can be bought off-the-shelf to be used for in-house training. They might be good enough for a basic training but there is no such thing as one size fits all, in order to make sure that it is suitable for your organization, they can be customized to meet your company's needs.

Take time for feedback

Feedback might be deemed as tedious, but it not only determines the effect of training held, it also provides information of how you can keep the management up-to-date. In the long run, such feedback would allow you to be able to measure the amount of impact of different aspects of the business on top of just the knowledge and performance.

Experiment with what you have

If the turn up rate of a certain workshop is not what you expected, review to check if the topics are relevant or take a different approach.

If the approach of doing the workshop offsite is not showing results, try doing an in-house workshop. Let your employees choose a way that fits them best.

Organizations need to deduce on the most effective way to convey the new knowledge. There must always be a balance to learning as well, do not flood all the workshops at once, take your time and enjoy the journey while trying to change the culture.

Explaining things to someone who do not get it?

There will come a time, when you will get to meet a new colleague. The new colleague is willing to learn, expressed strong interest in staying long in the company and is determined to prove their performance in the company. You have been assigned to be a mentor, and are accountable for her to adjust to the new environment.

However, repeated questions keep coming and you suddenly feel that the new entrant might not be the most suitable for the role. You really want to help her, but you remain clueless how.

Here’s How.

Understanding the root of the problem

Different people come in with different learning capacity. Some people have a preference over a learning style over the other. It is important that you understand that fact and respect the fact as well. If you feel that your training is not effective, you might want to understand further with regards on how else the person can be more receptive to it. You can instead ask “I understand that you are still experiencing some difficulties with regards to learning. Is there any other way I am able to better help you with?”

Sometimes, the problem could be you. You could have been a terrible person to instruct, or you do not explain to them the rationale of why things are done in a certain manner. If you are a terrible trainer, you could get someone else to do the coaching and guiding.

Training Evaluation

It is always a good idea to evaluate your employee’s training to understand which of the parts of training did your employee understand the best, and which one is not the best. Through understanding that, then you could cater your subsequent training to emphasize on the one that the employee might not be unsure of.

Encourage Questions

The worst thing you would want to do is to discourage an employee from asking questions. If employees are unsure, it would be good for them to clarify by asking questions. If your culture discourages questions, employees would deem what they deem fit which could result in operational errors. With operational errors, you would then encounter all the difficulties to rectify the errors over the long run.