Employee Learning in Organizations
Employees and organizations are two sides of the same coin. The effect on one causes changes in the other. Hence, employees should not be treated just as a means to an end. Employee well-being, learning, training, and performance are equally essential to be considered in your strategies as much in deciding organizational goals.
A skilled workforce is essential to achieve the desired business goals and compete in the market. In addition, your products or services need to be innovative and meet market needs, for quality and quantity are important. So, to be the best among your competitors, you need a close analysis of the skill of employees. Then comes the most crucial role of L&D to strategize and plan training for employee groups based on existing skills and the upskilling required for employees to improve their performance.
Why is Employee Development Important?
As previously said, employee development is equally important as organizational development. Both are interdependent and define the growth path. Hence planning the upskilling journey is vital to meet the skillset change required with the pace of technological developments. Also, employee development is crucial to get new perspectives and ideas in improving systems and processes in any organization.
Employee development depends on several factors like-
- giving an ear to the employee and learning about his challenges at work,
- understanding his strengths and weaknesses to decide on areas of improvement,
- guiding and mentoring him wherever required
- providing online learning opportunities for continuous upskilling so that personal and organizational development both are unobstructed.
Effective Online Learning Methods
Online learning is the most effective way for continuous learning and fast upskilling of employees to ensure no skill gap affects their performance and productivity. There are multiple online learning modes like Instructor-Led Training, self-paced learning, blended learning, and much more. Every organization can use effective online learning methods as per its people and the nature of training that needs to be given to its employees.
Instructor-led training is preferred for employees from an older age group, whereas today’s millennials most prefer self-paced learning, or you can have a blend of ILT and self-paced learning to serve all age groups as per the need.
How to improve Online Learning?
Online learning effectiveness can be greatly increased with the employee’s immediate manager’s involvement in the employee’s learning journey. Research shows that close coordination between the manager and employee can improve the employee’s learning experience and increase the impact of training by 30% compared to cases where there is no involvement of the manager in the employee’s learning.
Role of Manager in Employee Training
Managers can use various methods to improve the effectiveness of online learning as follows-
- Get Personal– Talk to the employee at a personal level to understand the challenges they face at work and where they lack knowledge. Also, understand the areas where they need help to perform better.
- Establish Connection– Make a strong human connection, so the employee doesn’t share his concerns or experiences and get your input. In return, managers can also get to know the learning needs and outcomes more clearly.
- Motivate and Engage– Motivate your employees to learn and share knowledge and upskill themselves. Sharing knowledge and contributing to others’ learning journeys will lead the organization to meet its goals.
- Monitor Performance– Monitor employees’ skill gaps and ensure training to mend those gaps. Analyze and measure if the skills of employees meet the required performance levels. An LMS or upskilling platform can help analyze and study improvements with its automated reports.
We have derived one such unique method, the 4-0-4 Model, to improve online learning. It has been used and verified by clients worldwide, has increased the online learning output, and helped organizations reach their business goals faster.
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Manager’s Role Before Training
Before the training starts, the manager takes 4 minutes to explain to the employee the goals of the training and the skills, knowledge, and competencies the manager wants the employee to get. This 4-minute discussion makes the employee aware of his training goals and expectations they should meet to make the training successful.
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Uninterrupted Employee Training
Whether it’s face-to-face Training, Instructor-led, or self-paced online training, employees must spend uninterrupted time training themselves. This will increase employees’ efficiency and the training programs’ effectiveness and double the training output by making learning more effective.
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Manager’s role After training
After the training, the manager must spend 4 minutes discussing with the employee and take a training overview. The manager needs to understand what they learned and how he will apply it in his day-to-day job. This gives more clarity of understanding to the employee and confidence to use his training knowledge on the job.
So, when manager involvement in employee learning is ensured, which, per the 4-0-4 Model, is 8 minutes in total, it increases employee learning effectiveness by 30%. Hence, manager involvement is crucial in employee development as much as using effective online learning methods. It increases the impact of training, making learning in organizations fruitful. When successful, training programs help drive all components in the organization to steer toward achieving business goals faster.
Conclusion
Online learning methods are preferred by organizations today because of the immense benefits it provides while improving employee learning effectiveness. Online training vis-a-vis face-to-face training can be self-paced, done from anywhere at any time, find all the learning material at a centralized location in the eLearning solution like an LMS, get automated immediate reports and plan learning paths to close skill gaps. All these benefits with the immediate manager’s involvement increase the learning impact by multiple folds. Adopt these intelligent ways to get maximum output of your learning plans and strategies.
