Learning and development (L&D) programs are a critical cornerstone of a successful company. Not only are workers more productive when they’re able to learn on the job, but they also feel happier at their jobs and more valued by the company.
Investing in a stellar L&D strategy is a no brainer for any business. Unfortunately, it can be a little intimidating to introduce a whole new program when one doesn’t exist already. To implement a learning and development strategy that helps your company and employees thrive, consider trying out the following five tips.
1. Offer the L&D Programs Your Employees Are Interested In
While offering training programs that help fill knowledge and talent gaps in technical areas your company wants to grow in will help your business, it’s also important to consider what subjects your employees are interested in. When workers are able to choose the areas they upskill in, they often find ways to leverage their learnings in their current roles in ways that management might never have suspected.
To get the best outcome, provide a combination of L&D programs that your business has identified as valuable and ones that employees have expressed interest in.
2. Leverage In-House Experts
If you find that your company is lacking in certain technical areas, your first inclination might be to hire outside help for training. Before you do that, spend time talking to your workers. You might find that a few have the skills you need and would be interested in sharing them with their coworkers through training seminars. Even if you do go for training outside your business, you can use these in-house experts to mentor those in the L&D programs.
To get the best outcome, search through your current workforce to find who has the ability to train or mentor other people in the skills you want to build up within your organization.
3. Foster a Learning Community
Learning new skills is no easy task. Often, watching a lecture or reading a workbook only go so far when it comes to really letting the lesson sink in. The best way to truly help your workers absorb what they learn is to encourage a community of learning. From taking courses together to working on projects that incorporate their new skills, building a group of workers with the same goal will help cement the lessons more than just reading or listening to a teacher will.
To get the best outcome, set aside regular time for workers to upskill in groups, or start a project contest or hackathon for employees to utilize their new skills as a team.
4. Collect Employee Feedback
Providing learning and development programs is a great benefit for employees, but it’s important to remember that the benefit only goes so far as employees are actually getting something useful out of the programs. According to the Talent Transformation Global Impact Report conducted by Udacity and IPSOS, 80% of enterprise companies thought their L&D programs were successful, but only 55% of employees agreed. This shows a clear lack of feedback on the part of the enterprise companies.
To be successful in your L&D strategy, it’s important to collect regular feedback from the workers who are participating in your programs. This feedback will clearly tell you if the programs are meeting your employee’s needs. You can use this data to alter the programs so that your workers — and by extension your business — finds success.
5. Make L&D Flexible
One of the best strategies for encouraging your workers to participate in L&D programs is to make them flexible. This can mean the courses are offered online, at variable times, and can be done at each individual’s own pace. The easier it is to fit learning into their schedules, the more likely employees will do the work.
To get the best outcome, consider utilizing an online learning platform, like Udacity, to conduct your learning and development programs.
Consider a Digital Talent Transformation Partner
If you’re ready to take your business to the next level with L&D programs, check out Udacity for Enterprise. Our L&D strategies will help you identify talent gaps in digital technologies, upskill your workforce, and create job-ready talent.
Check out Udacity for Enterprise to learn the skills you’ll need to thrive in your marketing career.
