Why and how to build an Organizational Learning Culture!

Have you heard about the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? If I were to list the needs of a millennial employee in this chart, workplace learning will definitely fall into the “esteem bucket” if not the top most.

Why? Millennials are known to be driven by a sense of purpose. Their decision to sign up for work is influenced less by money & designation and more by the role, impact and self growth.

I often hear people managers talk about troubles in improving employee productivity, meeting team targets, retaining talent, and so on. However, they seldom acknowledge learning as an important tool to address these very problems.

In most companies learning often takes a backseat to productivity and other team KPIs. They don’t often see the connect. Organizations should stop looking at learning as a process or event connected to just skill development or knowledge management. Instead they should look at learning as a catalyst to promote organizational growth.

Here are 4 key things that you could do to make learning an integral part of your organizational culture.

Start Early:

Make a great first impression on your fresh talent. Provide them with an onboarding program where they can learn before they join. This will not only demonstrate the organization’s commitment to learning but will also help them hit the ground running from day 1.

Make Learning Easy and Accessible

Substitute infrequent, mandatory training sessions with an online learning hub (intranet / cloud) that covers multiple functions. Embrace micro learning and m-learning platforms that can integrate learning into the smartphone and allow 24/7 access.

Make Mentors out of Managers:

Encourage your people managers to coach their subordinates. Empower them to share knowledge and provide regular feedback to their team. Let them champion team-wide learning initiatives.

Introduce Learning as a Performance Metric:

Tie learning to performance reviews. Make it a part of the growth path. Make knowledge shareable and reward employees who do so. Studies have shown that measuring learning, along with performance, leads to an increase in both.

So that’s it, folks! Just 4 things that can help you set up a truly transformative organizational learning culture.

What are your thoughts about building an effective organizational learning culture? Do let me know in the comments!