As children, we soak up knowledge like a sponge. We’re always learning, evolving, and growing. Does that stop when we reach maturity?
Of course not!
Adults can learn too, in fact, learning is something which should be an ongoing process, something to strive for.
If you are responsible for a team of staff, e.g. you’re a manager or supervisor, you should certainly be encouraging constant learning amongst your team members. This can be in many different forms, some which are not so obvious as others.
This article is about how you can encourage constant learning in the workplace. You might wonder why this should be such an issue, surely if your staff can do their job properly and well, that’s enough? Of course it’s not! A constantly growing and evolving workforce has many benefits to a business, including bringing new knowledge, skills, and methods of working to the fore. Businesses never stand still, just like technology. The ability to learn new skills and use them in everyday life is vital in business, and can be the difference between beating the competition, and simply not moving anywhere.
Of course, some employees might be more open to learning than others. For instance, older employees might not like going on training courses and learning new technological packages, because they find it imposing, or they may be worried they aren’t going to ‘catch on’ as quickly as some of the younger staff. This is of course simply a fear, and not a reality. The key here is to talk to your staff, reassure them that learning new skills is a positive thing, something to strive towards, and nothing to worry about, or be fearful of.
You can understand why this might be the case. The world is always moving, business is always moving, technology is certainly always moving. Staff need to be excited about learning, in order for it to work, and in order for it to benefit them and the business as a whole. If staff are fearful of learning new skills, then it’s going to be an even bigger struggle overall. Instill a positive sense when it comes to learning, and you’ll see the difference from the start.
So, how can you encourage learning within the workplace?
Be Innovative With Learning
Learning isn’t always about going to school, college, or university and learning something new for a specific length of time, and it’s not about exams either. Learning can be through day courses, or it can be through an app. There are more and more online learning resources which you can encourage staff to take advantage of, including mobile technology sources, which can be accessed on the go.
Allowing your staff to learn in their own time, e.g. at home or during study days, encourages them to be more flexible and even laid-back about new education. Some staff don’t deal well with classroom-style courses, or sitting around a conference table, so being innovative with the way you deliver such training is a good starting point.
Instill a Learning Ethos
If you are clear from the get-go about learning and education, then it is going to be much easier to encourage training. Make learning one of your company selling points for staff, and when new staff join the company, as part of their induction, lay out the fact that your company encourages constant learning. Remember to be positive about learning, and to sell it as something fun, not something which must be done, or a box to be ticked off. Again, this will help to reduce any mislaid fear amongst staff who are worried about learning or attending courses.
Learning Can be Through Teamwork
We can learn from our colleagues very easily - we just need to soak up that new knowledge like a sponge, just as child would! Teamwork overall is a great opportunity for learning, so when you put together teams, do your best to create a wide range of different personalities and education types/performance types.
This can bring out the quieter members of staff, make them a little more vocal perhaps, and it will allow the more introverted members of staff to impart their knowledge in a more controlled and comfortable environment. You can’t simply throw any group of people together and expect them to gel - be careful with your team building and you will present your staff with instant opportunities to grow and learn.
Incorporate Collaborative Team Exercises and Idea Sharing Sessions
We just mentioned that teamwork is a great learning source, but you can force the issue a little by incorporating collaborative team exercises and idea sharing sessions too. Develop a breakout area within your workspace, with some luxurious office furniture, and encourage staff to brainstorm on certain issues and projects. Having this exercise away from the office itself, away from office desks, gives a more comfortable and laid-back feel, and therefore encourages the exchange of ideas, and therefore knowledge.
Perhaps once a week, or once every fortnight, schedule a collaborative exercise for your employees. This can take place within the boardroom, with some comfortable meeting room chairs to maintain concentration, or another space, and it can be around any subject area which is pertinent to growth. For instance, if you have a new computer system coming into the office, you could do an exercise around that, without it being a training session per-se.
Search For External Training Sessions to Suit Your Team
You can easily encourage staff to attend an external training session around a subject pertinent to your workspace, by sourcing them out yourself. This means you will need to allow a set number of staff to attend every week, by ensuring you cover the office adequately and avoid any drop in productivity.
By allowing staff to attend these sessions in pairs or in small groups, you are also making the process of learning more comfortable, and perhaps more fun too.
Incorporate a Learning Zone
Newer office designs are incorporating the idea of zones within an office. For instance, there will be a zone for quiet work, e.g. figures, and there will be a zone for collaborative work, such as brainstorming. This ensures that the right type of work can be done in the right environment, allowing staff to concentrate. In addition to this, why not incorporate a learning zone?
This could be separated from the rest of the space with office screens, and to make it a comfortable and immersive space, use luxury office desks and adjustable chairs. Within this space your staff can use the internet to search for industry-related news and updates, research any issues which are pertinent to the job, and also work on any resource based training packages which you can install on the computers in that space. A specific zone makes learning ‘acceptable' in many ways, and gets the mind focused on absorbing new knowledge.
Make Learning Opportunities a Key Part of Staff Appraisals
We know that appraisals are carried out every year, to help staff discuss any issues they need to raise, and allow a two-way discussion to increase productivity and overall morale. In addition to this, appraisals are the perfect opportunity to identify any training needs, and also to talk about any further learning opportunities which members of staff might have. If you focus your approach towards learning when you conduct appraisals, you can help create a feeling of progression amongst your team members. Encourage staff to think of new subjects within the workplace they’d like to explore and learn about, and also ask if there are any additional courses of areas they would like to embark upon. For instance, if you have a team member who didn’t get the grade they would have liked in their GCSE mathematics, you could look at whether the company could put them forward to retake the exam.
Learning Benefits Everyone
Put simply, by ensuring that staff are focused on learning, you are not only benefiting them and their future, but your company’s future too. Constant progression, constantly moving forward, these are aims any business should have, and you can ensure that happens by having highly trained, up to date staff, who are eager to learn more as they go along.
Here at Calibre, we’re all in for learning! If you’re looking to create a comfortable space for your staff to soak up new knowledge, we offer some great office furniture solutions in London for you to choose from.
What is your take on constant learning? Have you got any other ideas on how workplaces can encourage training and learning opportunities for staff?