Five Key Steps to Creating the Right Atmosphere for Business Training, Learning and Development

October is “National Learning and Development Month” and obviously, it’s a big deal here at SkillPath since that is pretty much what we do. But my question to you is … how important is it in your organization?

A Pew Research Center survey, “The State of American Jobs,” found that 87 percent of the current U.S. workforce believes it is essential for them to get the training needed to develop new skills so they can keep up with their changing workplace. Is your company giving its employees what they want and need?

Does your company’s commitment to training give you an edge in recruiting top talent?

 

Technological changes are reshaping U.S. workplaces as the economy moves deeper into a knowledge-focused age. Because of these changes and the increasing presence or artificial intelligence (AI) in many workplaces, companies like yours are increasingly seeking people with better social, communications and analytical skills. They are prodding many workers to think about lifetime commitments to retraining and upgrading their skills.

 

The following is an excerpt from our recent report, SkillPath Industry Report: Training Trends 2018, that we published on our site earlier this year. You can read the entire report, or one of the many other white papers or blog articles there to help you improve your ability to train current employees and attract the best talent down the line.                                                                                                                                                       

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LEARNING AS PART OF THE TOTAL EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

 

When organizations don’t recognize the expanding connection between job experience, meaningful work and organizational culture, they risk an unmotivated and cynical workforce. In other words, employees have seen the disconnect between “talking the talk” and “walking the walk” too often.

In Deloitte’s 2017 Global Human Capital Trends report, authors Josh Bersin, Jason Flynn, Art Mazor and Veronica Melian argue that there are five critical areas in which many organizations are falling short in recognizing the power of employee experience—and in thinking that learning is solely the responsibility of the HR department.

 

First, many companies have not yet made employee experience a priority for HR leaders, often delegating this problem to an annual engagement survey. 

 

Second, while some companies have created the C-suite role of employee experience officer, most companies have not assigned responsibility to a senior executive or team to design and deliver the employee experience.

 

Third, siloed HR departments often find it difficult to obtain the resources needed to address an integrated set of priorities, which range from management practices to the workplace to benefits and, often, the work culture itself.

 

Fourth, companies need to update their tools to engage employees on an ongoing basis (with pulse surveys at least) to help HR teams and line leaders understand more fully what the talent they employ expects and values. An employee net promoter score is another important tool in this effort.

 

Fifth, many companies remain focused on “point-in-time engagement” and have not yet pulled together the disciplines of performance management, goal setting, diversity, inclusion, wellness, workplace design and leadership into an integrated framework.

 

Employees have made it clear in survey after survey: They want learning and development, they want to be seen as individuals with potential to do more, to be entrusted with more and to have their natural potential for becoming “leaders at all levels” developed. 

In essence, this focus on employee experience is the capstone of continuous learning, employee-driven learning and customizable learning. Organizations that are serious about employee engagement and learning will ensure that their “employee experience” efforts are truly tactical and not just theoretical. 

 

EX [employee experience] is sum of everything an employee experiences throughout his or her connection to the organization—every employee interaction, from the first contact as a potential recruit to the last interaction after the end of employment. … Just as customers pick and choose from a plethora of brands based on reviews they access digitally, many people seem to use online resources to ‘shop’ among potential employers—and decide to proceed with those companies that offer the kind of EX they’re looking for.”               Denise Lee Yohn, Brand leadership expert