All workplaces need to have a strong culture of learning. Firms that coast by and refuse to evolve risk slipping into obscurity in the future.
Still, things are in dire need of improvement where training is concerned. There’s an enormous skills gap in multiple sectors; even apprenticeship schemes are said to be faltering and failing to draw interest. The world of work is changing, but many staff members are failing to adapt to it.
As firms become increasingly digitised and flexible in their operations, people must keep up with the faster pace that industries are working. Training is a key part of that, and all your employees should have boundless enthusiasm for further learning. These solutions can also be important investments, so getting good value from them is vital.
Still, what if certain employees need an attitude adjustment here? How can you motivate and compel them into these activities? You’ll find a few tips after the jump.
Involve Peer Influences
Not every employee is against workplace training. It’s worth reminding apprehensive workers of that fact. After all, a lack of career development opportunities is often cited as one of the main reasons workers look for other roles elsewhere. If others are so keen to advance their skill set, then there’s no reason your employees shouldn’t feel the same.
There’s an intrinsic connection between workplace training and career development, too. The latter cannot be possible without the former. If employees wish to take on new challenges rather than live out the same workday for years, workplace training will be an essential part of making that happen. When it’s time for promotions, the employees that are the most skilled, and show the most initiative, will be prime candidates.
Workers will expect managers to encourage training. Consequently, if some non-management staff members respond to training better than others, try asking them to spread the good word about it. They could mentor colleagues, provide useful tips and advice, and overall sing the praises of these efforts to their teams. These duties could also shine a light on their leadership potential, positioning these positive influencers well for managerial roles in future.
Look Outside the Company
Inspiration for training can come from outside the business too. There are many providers of quality training courses. Accredited training providers can cover various topics, from health and safety and food hygiene to business finance and accounting. They may have different interactive elements, such as informal quizzes, competitive games, and simulated scenarios. The more engaging they are, the more stimulated workers will feel when completing the courses.
Objectives and key results are often referred to as OKRs and have many development opportunities built around them. For example, OKRs consulting by 1ovmany transforms company approaches to organisational strategy. They also offer private and public training courses on OKR, with classroom, virtual classroom, and e-learning resources available. 1ovmany have also built their own community, which can be engaged with for ongoing learning opportunities and additional support. These services can highlight just how impactful training can be to a business, so book a free consultation.
Diversification is important when exploring external training possibilities. Cast a wider net, and your employees will have a range of content to pique their interests. If you’re unsure what those might be, ask them. What existing abilities would they like to polish? Have they always aspired to branch out to other areas and acquire new skills?
Provide Great Hospitality
Training can take place outside of the workplace. On other occasions, employees may also need to stay late or head in on the weekend to train and will understandably be more unhappy about things. If these situations are necessary, then you should try to ease your employee’s frustrations. The best way to do that is with great hospitality. If they’re heading out of town to train elsewhere, try to secure them the best accommodation possible, along with business class travel arrangements. Should they be heading into the office, having a supply of food and drink ready to go may help bring some calm, too.
The idea is to make training feel more like a luxury than a chore. Employees will know you’re of service to them rather than subjecting them to dreary, mandatory procedures only. Providing food and drink could also create a more social element, whereby workers can relax, interact with friendly faces, and thus stand a better chance of fully engaging with the training. It’s good to show that you care and go the extra mile.
You could also arrange workplace social events before and after the training too. After all, if you’re all in a new place or together after traditional working hours, you may make the most of it. Book a table at a restaurant or do anything else that helps employees see the brighter side. Such activities can help employees decompress, too, and process all they’ve experienced.
Create Team-Oriented Goals
Of course, the brilliant thing about OKRs is that they’re a company-wide pursuit. No single employee is responsible for an organisational strategy but must band together to see it through. Consider doubling down on that side of things. After all, training can be quite insular and isolating when it’s poorly managed, and this is also the riskiest set of circumstances for polarising your staff. By characterising training as a company-wide initiative with shared goals, employees may feel that much more motivated to make the best of it all.
Training that involves team-building is essential. Even if the course is individual, you could set group objectives around pass rates, featuring things like bonuses or perks if departments pass a certain percentage threshold. If one person succeeds with training, then the entire company benefits too, and impressing that message upon your staff is an excellent approach.
Your workers could debrief as a team post-training too. What did they get out of the experience? Did they encounter similar challenges? Much unity can be found in a shared experience, and it can spur employees to interact, connect, and develop closer working relationships.
Introduce Mobile Elements
Employees don’t always appreciate the timing of training. While some of these practices can be mandatory, workers steadily appreciate more autonomy in their roles.
Some training providers have curated courses that can be accessed from a smartphone device. These capabilities can make training far more convenient to engage with. Instead of being stuck at their desk for hours, employees can break up their sessions and upskill themselves during pockets of free time in their working day. Public transport workers may choose to spend that time swiping away, saving themselves valuable time on the premises.
Mobile learning can potentially be more cost-effective. Employees may feel more inclined to share and discuss their training progress if it’s more informally presented on their phones. There may even be sharing tools that enable them to compare their progress against that of their peers, sparking healthy competition in the workplace so long as participants are mature about things.
Of course, caution is advised here, as swiping a smartphone on the bus isn’t the only way people should train. Once again, a healthy mixture of approaches is a good idea, providing plenty of stimulation and scheduling convenience for workers. Training that demands a higher calibre of engagement should be more formalised to impress the seriousness of progress made, so ensure complacency doesn’t set in.
