Editor’s note: This is the first part of a summer series in how to improve your organization’s performance.
So, how many of you raised your hand?
It’s OK, we can’t see you – go ahead, be honest. If we were to ask your employees if they feel your organization can improve employee development and learning and increase recognition, how many would raise their hand?
One of the most overlooked yet important assets a company has is their people. If you don’t take care of the people – your long term goals are unlikely to be met – and you may never see how far you can really go with your business.
Reasons to improve employee development & learning
- Most people want to learn. They want to be challenged. The more you can provide opportunities for them to do so, the more likely they are to remain engaged. The more engaged the workforce, the higher performing they are, the higher performing they are the more innovation and revenue are likely to increase.
- When people acquire new knowledge they find of value, they usually have a desire to apply that knowledge, and to share it with others. Not only does this increase organizational learning, it also helps increase team performance, via knowledge sharing and communication.
- When your people feel they can learn and grow with your organization, and they feel their knowledge and contributions are valued, then they are less likely to look for a job elsewhere.
OK– so this is great, you say. But how do I focus more on my people?
3 ways to improve employee development & learning:
- Ask your employees what they want. What types of knowledge and learning opportunities can help them better perform their jobs? What types of knowledge and learning opportunities make them feel challenged as individuals? Collect the data and act on it. Offer options based on employee input. One of the quickest ways to increase performance is to increase engagement.
- Provide for peer to peer learning. Brown bag lunch and learns, webinars – take advantage of various formats available for employees to share knowledge and interests with others who may benefit. Providing employees the opportunity to transfer knowledge increases an employee’s communication skills, and is an easy way to provide recognition and make them feel valued.
- Understand your needs and admit you don’t know what you don’t know. If specific learning and development is requested by employees, and is of value to the organization, and you don’t have the capability in house to deliver, then look outside. Partner with other organizations on learning and development offerings or bring in an outside resource.
We know your attention span is short this time of year, particularly if you have a pool or beach nearby, so we’ll keep this short. We just covered one area to look at that will help improve your performance – employee development and recognition. Our next installment will be about retention and engagement.
This was originally published on the Tolero Think Tank blog.