Organization development (OD) is an initiative by a company to develop their employees using science-backed strategies to achieve specific business objectives. It started in the 1930s to examine the social science of people in organizations, to improve structures and processes. Now, it’s a whole field of consulting aimed at helping businesses run smoothly — both for the employers and the employees.
Understanding and implementing OD is a key part of building a thriving business. The four main components of OD are employee interaction and communication as a group, structure-level organization, human resources management (including career development and workplace culture), and long-term health of an organization (including employee retention and leadership growth).
In the digital age, online learning has become a big part of OD. Since we’re an online learning platform, we’ve invested a lot into understanding how to leverage online training to help businesses. Here are five ways that using online training as part of your organizational development initiatives can benefit your enterprise company.
1. Online Training Provides Flexibility in Learning
One of the key benefits of online learning is the ability to log in to classes from anywhere in the world. No longer will employees need to attend courses in a stuffy classroom that requires them to drive to a specific location at a specific time. With online training, employees can do their coursework from the comfort of their own homes and at the time of day that suits them best. With many offices closed due to COVID-19, this amount of location flexibility is more critical than ever.
2. Employees Are Happiest When Learning On-the-Job
Recent studies have shown that employees who are enabled to learn new skills at work are happier than those who are not. According to LinkedIn, employees that upskill at work are less stressed, more productive, and overall, over 20% happier. In another study, almost 20% of workers said the thing that makes them happiest with their current job (and encourages them to work harder) is the ability to learn and grow at work. Online training provides a cost-effective range of possibilities for employees to learn new skills while at work.
3. Improve Ability to Promote From Within
Many times, there are plenty of current employees who would be perfectly suited for promotions — only they don’t quite have the skills they need to take the next step. This is unfortunate all around because it deprives the worker of the ability to advance their career and it costs a boatload of money to the company to hire someone new. With online training, current workers can upskill at work and put themselves in positions for advancement.
4. Help Employees Follow Their Natural Interests
People naturally desire to learn more about what interests them. For some, it could be networking, cloud, and IT. For others, it could be data management and AI. And yet still for others, it could be project management and business intelligence. The world is full of fascinating topics that many workers would love to spend a portion of their workday learning about. With online training, it’s possible to offer a wide range of courses to employees, letting them choose a path of learning that best suits their interests.
5. Develop a Culture of Lifelong Learning
People who continue to learn new things their whole lives — not just when in school — are happier, healthier, and more fulfilled. By providing online training to your employees, you’re encouraging them to use some of their time at work to learn new skills. Over time, this will have a ripple effect throughout the organization, with workers excitedly sharing their new skills and growing within their roles.
Train Your Workforce Online Today
Online training is a great way to beef up your organizational development plan. It can provide flexibility, improve mood, and inspire a culture of lifelong learning.
If you think adding online training to your business can help with your organizational development, check out Udacity for Enterprise today
