Category: Development

Is Learning Part of Your Company Culture?

Is Learning Part of Your Company Culture?

Is Learning Part of Your Company Culture?

Have you ever wondered what the Spice Girls would be like now if they had stayed together? We sure have! Sadly, we can only imagine the incredible tunes they might have produced if they had been allowed to grow and evolve within the group instead of being trapped in their predetermined ‘roles’. Today’s workforce is much like Posh, Ginger, Sporty, Scary, and Baby: they need to be in an environment where their learning and development opportunities are supported.

If denied that learning culture, they will quickly move on.

So, what can you do about it? How can you create a strong learning culture in your company?

Let’s explore what a training and development culture looks like, and why it’s so vital.

Is Learning Part of Your Company Culture?

What Does A Learning Culture Look Like?

Because every business is different, there’s no one-size-fits-all prescription for a learning culture. Each business should create development and training opportunities that fit into the values and culture that already exists.

However, there are commonalities.

Training and development is not merely a “ticking the boxes” kind of activity. It’s a strategy that encompasses all the ways your people share, support, and learn together, both on individual and collective levels.

It’s about connecting the dots and understanding that individual learning is the foundation for collective success.

Opportunities Are Everywhere

Traditionally, training meant sending your staff to lengthy courses and trying to cover their time out of the office. Now, development opportunities can take place both inside and outside the workplace.

The standard 70:20:10 model suggests that a mere 10 percent of learning occurs at formal training sessions, 20 percent from informal studying, and a whopping 70 percent is on the job development.

Online courses are extremely popular, but less structured opportunities to learn, such as YouTube videos or TED talks, can be equally effective. Find the tools and resources to fit your team.

People Enablement Is Where It’s At

The concept of people enablement was trending a few years ago and is still growing in popularity.

Rather than a static progression along a pre-defined pathway, organisations are focusing on a learning culture that allows employees to gain valuable experience, explore new skillsets, and reinvent themselves.

Training opportunities could look different for each team member, depending on their skillset, progression ambitions and availability.

Integrate Development Plans

Performance and development go hand in hand, so development plans should be part of your toolkit. Employee reviews and catchups should have a heavy focus on growth and development. They should be created as a two-way discussion with employees, where you both identify the support and tools needed for success.

It’s a great opportunity to speak with each team member about the areas they want to improve in and how the business can enable them to skill up.

The Delicious Side Effects of A Culture Of Learning

Providing development opportunities to your team drives employee engagement and strengthens your culture. The benefits are numerous and include:

Employee Retention

The modern workforce, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, highly value learning and development. If they can see opportunities to upskill within an organisation with a robust, built-in learning culture, they are likely to be fulfilled and won’t need to seek opportunities elsewhere.

In fact, 93 percent of employees say they will remain at an organisation that invests in their development and training. Not only will you retain your best employees, but you will also save money by reducing employee turnover.

Recruitment

To attract top talent, your organisation needs to become an employer of choice. Having a successful culture of learning builds your brand and makes you more attractive to skilled employees. This reputation will generate a better quality of candidate.

Improved Performance

At the most basic level, training helps people perform their tasks efficiently. Enhanced efficiency equals enhanced productivity. But beyond this, there are other tangible benefits, such as increased confidence, innovation, and creativity, a problem-solving mindset, and improved morale.

People development initiatives are just one piece of the puzzle in building an engaged, exciting, and high performing team. Your employees are your biggest asset, so it makes perfect sense that an investment in their knowledge and skills is an investment in your organisation, too.

Don’t let your team drift apart to make their own opportunities like the Spice Girls did… provide them with opportunities to grow, learn, and experiment, and you’ll stay strong for years to come!

If you would like to discuss how this could look in your business, then get in touch with us here at Spice HR. We can help you create a people and culture development program that will make your company an enviable place to work! Drop us a line today.

Managing Performance and Expectations In Your Team

Are you confident that your employees understand the performance expectations of their current roles? Is your feedback timely and relevant? Are you helping your team stay engaged and motivated?

That is a lot of questions to answer!

But, in the current fast-changing landscape of business, they are important questions to consider.

There is a lot of uncertainty in the world right now. People are developing a different set of needs based on recent events and the way the world is behaving.

With many businesses evolving and adapting thanks to COVID-19, it is the ideal time to review the way you communicate expectations and manage performance with your employees.

Let’s do a quick check-in to see if everyone is on the same page.

The Importance of Managing Expectations

Imagine you are training to be a pro athlete – let’s say a high jumper for the sake of this example.

At the beginning of your training, your coach tells you to practice jumping to be ready to qualify for nationals in six months. They hand you some running shoes, point you in the direction of the track, book you in for a review in five and a half months, and leave you to it.

What are your chances of successfully qualifying without any other assistance?

Pretty slim, right? You don’t know the height to aim for to qualify, get no feedback on your technique to improve, and have very little motivation or accountability to get you even close.

No coach worth their money would train someone without laying out expectations, giving continual feedback, and reviewing performance. But unfortunately, many employers and managers do just that to their employees.

We would go so far as to say that without clear expectations for your team members, it’s impossible to hold people accountable. And you can forget about managing performance altogether! Honestly, how can you expect people to meet your expectations if you don’t clarify what you expect of them!?

Setting Clear Expectations

Much like managing performance, setting expectations should be an ongoing conversation rather than an infrequent event. People develop their skills, clients adjust their needs, and even routine jobs and tasks can change, particularly as businesses adjust to life post-lockdown.

Ensure you stay up to date and redefine expectations as necessary. Don’t just assume that everyone is on the same page about any changes that have been made. It’s time to hone those communication skills and ensure everyone knows exactly what needs to be accomplished (and by whom and when!).

Where possible, capture the expectations as part of a written performance development plan, as key performance indicators or milestones.

Development vs Reviews

If someone is falling short of your expectations, try asking yourself if those expectations are clear. Of course they are to you, but are they crystal clear to your employee? As in the high-jumper example, it’s hard to be motivated if you don’t really understand what you should be doing or why.

Once the expectations are laid out clearly, your employees are far more likely to be engaged and motivated.

Keep your team on track with effective performance management that is relevant, timely, positive, and forward-focused. To get you into the right mindset, it can be helpful to reframe “performance reviews” as “development reviews.”

This approach focuses on helping employees develop their skills and grow with the business, rather than focusing too heavily on the things that went wrong.

If you have regular catch-ups designed to lead your people and your business forward with a growth mindset, they will feel as if they are on a journey with you, and life will be that much easier for everyone!

The word ‘uncertain’ keeps cropping up in conversation lately. And rightly so, these are uncertain times in many regards. Which is why managing performance and setting expectations is so important for your team.

If you are unsure how to tackle that in the current circumstances, then get in touch with us here at Spice HR. Together, we can help you navigate through the uncertainty. Drop us a line today!