Increase employee experience through learning and development
Investing in growth and development enhances employees’ satisfaction, motivation, and happiness in their current roles. What can an organization do to increase the employee experience of learning and development? Here are 7 tips for a better employee experience:
1. Truly adopt the 70:20:10 model
We learn in various ways: through practice, from colleagues, and in a classroom or online learning portal. The desired ratio in this regard is known as the 70:20:10 learning model. This means that no more than 10% of learning occurs through formal training, 20% through learning from others and coaching, and 70% through hands-on experience. Given this understanding, it seems logical for training policies to facilitate this ratio. Many Learning & Development departments focus mainly on the 10% formal learning. Given the limited returns and high costs of formal learning, this balance isn’t ideal. Additionally, due to staff shortages and workload, formal learning away from the workplace can cause issues as employees can’t be spared. Therefore, focus on the other elements. Foster a culture of growth and development by increasing opportunities for on-the-job learning. Pair experienced and less experienced employees as buddies. Encourage job crafting, internal rotations, and exchanges, even between organizations. Populate projects with a mix of experienced and inexperienced colleagues. Embrace the idea that mistakes are part of the learning process and create forums like “The Fuck-up of the Week” where everyone can learn from failures. Let employees act as trainers in internal training sessions. Encourage regular constructive discussions about development needs and feedforward within the team or one-on-one initiated by the manager.
2. Talent-focused development
Every individual has talent and is a talent. Encourage each other to discover, appreciate, develop, and utilize each other’s talents. Identify each other’s strengths and use an (online) tool to identify these strengths (such as Gallup StrengthsFinder). A team becomes stronger when it embraces diversity in talents and values differences. Focus especially on developing each other’s strengths. This sometimes means accepting that someone doesn’t have a particular talent. There’s nothing more demotivating than having to undergo training in an area where your strengths don’t lie. Sending someone with ADHD to a time management course is futile.
Questions you can ask each other (from “100 Questions for a Good Conversation About Work”):
Do you know what your talents are? Which talent do you want to develop? What do you need for that? Which of your talents do you want to utilize more? Which of your talents do you want to utilize less? In what ways can the team better utilize your talents? What talent of yours isn’t being utilized by the organization yet?
3. One size fits none
Every employee is different. To provide employees with a good experience, you must accommodate these differences. Sometimes, individuals go through phases where they don’t want or can’t engage in training for various reasons, alongside the mandatory work-related training. This should be accepted because development can also happen within the job.
How can you accommodate differences? Offer the same learning content in multiple formats for formal learning, such as e-learning and classroom training if there’s a need. Not everyone enjoys purely text-based e-learning. Currently, 14% of high school students have dyslexia certifications. Working with videos and images works better for them and many non-dyslexic young people. Many employees now have a personal training budget. At top employers, employees can spend this on their personal development needs, even if they’re unrelated to work.
4. Connect learning to purpose
The impact of training can be enhanced by bridging it to purpose: the organization’s purpose, objectives, and ambitions regarding the employee experience. Make it part of the introduction, or show examples. Incorporate the organization’s core values into the development of training and learning formats. For example, if ‘courage’ is one of the core values, reinforce it by including a task in the training that requires courage.
The chosen location for training can also increase impact: because it aligns with the organization’s products or services or the theme of the training. This can range from a tour of an innovative building to a forest environment that encourages reflection. Fun and connection should be standard elements of training, and not just because there’s a drinks reception afterward. Fun makes it work! So, think of creative exercises, group activities, and a touch of competition. Incorporate moments of reflection and appreciation—both for oneself and others—as a regular part of training. For example, after an online training session, appreciation can be shown by ending it with digital confetti and verbal congratulations to the employee in the (digital) team meeting.
5. Learn from Amazon and Netflix
Most organizations now have a learning platform. Learn especially from sites like Amazon, Netflix, and Booking on how to improve it: with user-friendly layouts, search assistance, reviews, ratings, and recommendations (‘others also watched…’). Also, link learning to other HR products: for example, the internal recruitment tool also includes videos ranging from ‘how our recruitment system works’ to ‘how to conduct a good selection interview’. If you receive feedback on your engagement survey answers, include links to the learning portal immediately as advice to work on.
Digital learning is the future, especially concerning gamification, virtual reality, augmented reality, and soon the metaverse. Under the influence of the TikTok generation, digital microlearning and nanolearning (90-second videos) will have more influence. It’s good to take steps in that direction. All the data collected in learning systems will provide valuable insights!
6. Implement after training
During the training, the employee gained insights they wanted to work on. They practiced skills they wanted to apply in practice. But after the training, they were consumed again by their daily work. Or the training didn’t align well with the practical aspects. There was no colleague interested in the training at the workplace, if anyone even knew there was a training. The manager also showed no interest. After some time, the content was forgotten altogether. It feels bad, such a useless investment. So, get more out of the training and/or by immediately applying what was learned in practice and practicing it! What can you do:
After the training or conference, the employee gives a summary presentation to colleagues. After the training, the employee agrees with colleagues that they will address the employee’s new expertise, and they can seek advice. The employee creates a plan to implement what they’ve learned in practice, shares it with their team, and asks the manager and colleagues to create practice moments for them. The employee asks for a buddy for frequent feedback. The employee schedules refresher moments for the rest of the year, for example, by brainstorming with other experts, visiting external companies, and reading professional literature.
7. Continuous dialogue
To keep learning and development on everyone’s agenda, periodic discussions about learning and development between managers and employees and/or within teams are crucial. The best 12 questions you can ask each other:
What do you need to know/ what knowledge do you need to keep up to do your job well? What knowledge, competencies, and/or skills do you want to learn? What personal development would you like? In which area would you like to be coached? Do you have the space to develop yourself? Are you allowed to make mistakes when taking on new tasks? Which tasks contribute to your development? Which learning method suits you for the coming period? Which diplomas do you still lack? What knowledge would you like to acquire to become a top performer in your field? Who in the organization would you like to learn from, and who outside the organization? How can you contribute to others’ development?
This way, you truly get a return on learning & development that contributes to the employee experience!
