Learning is key to a company’s success. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, said, “An organization’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly is the ultimate competitive advantage,” per Allen Comm.1 L&D professionals can increase learning and optimize corporate wellness this year by implementing a few simple tips.
Want to Jumpstart Organizational Change in 2019?
Give These 3 Ideas a Try.
Here are three ideas that can streamline training, increase productivity, boost employee satisfaction, and more:
- Upskill and reskill employees — If you do nothing differently this year, make upskilling and reskilling employees a top priority.
“U.S. competitiveness is being hurt by a skills shortage…46% (of company presidents and CFOs) believe the workforce is not receiving the proper skills training businesses require,” wrote a contributor to CNBC.2
The answer to closing the corporate skills gap is simple, but not easy: effectively train employees. For your company, this could mean investing more money into training.
There are many ways to get better results from corporate training. One is by enabling staff to learn in the flow of work.
- Promote learning in the flow of work — “Learning in the flow of work” refers to learning and training that takes place during the course of a normal workday. It doesn’t require an employee to leave his or her desk, or even leave the business applications they may be working with. It feels natural, is informal, and is the future of learning.
According to Josh Bersin, most employees have only 24 minutes per week to learn.3 When employees learn in the flow of work, they aren’t pulled away from their job unnecessarily. Instead, they rapidly acquire new skills from microlearning segments, such as succinct video tutorials or articles, then immediately apply those skills to their task at hand.
Companies can promote learning in the flow of work by implementing tools like Office 365, Salesforce, or a learning experience platform.
- Create a collaborative work culture — Collaborative work environments offer many benefits for employers as well as employees. Increasing collaboration among staff not only inspires creativity and promotes knowledge sharing, but it also increases performance, according to Forbes.
To boost workplace collaboration, facilitate team-building activities, use team collaboration software, and improve employee communication with an AI Knowledge Cloud.
How Will You Drive Change This Year as an L&D Professional?
Hoping to drive organizational change hard in 2019? If so, try putting a greater emphasis on upskilling and reskilling employees via effective training, enabling staff to learn in the flow of work, and making company culture more collaborative.
References:
- Allen Comm. 13 learning and development quotes to spark inspiration. https://www.allencomm.com/blog/2015/09/13-learning-and-development-quotes-to-spark-inspiration/.
- CNBC. Here’s what the June unemployment rate is not telling you about job losses. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/07/heres-what-the-unemployment-rate-is-not-telling-you-about-job-losses.html.
- Bersin, Josh. A new paradigm for corporate training: learning in the flow of work. https://joshbersin.com/2018/06/a-new-paradigm-for-corporate-training-learning-in-the-flow-of-work/.
- Forbes. New study finds that collaboration drives workplace performance. https://www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2017/06/22/new-study-finds-that-collaboration-drives-workplace-performance/#423f56de3d02.
