With Learning at Work Week taking place 12- 18th May, what better time to think about how workplace learning can empower your business and contribute to its success?
The theme for this year’s Learning at Work Week is ‘Get Connected’, encouraging businesses, amongst other things, to think about how to connect people with learning experiences through building motivation and addressing barriers to engagement.
Many businesses already view workplace training as a must-have when it comes to boosting areas such as productivity, compliance with policies and procedures, employee retention and competitiveness, but this doesn’t always mean it’s easy to get employee buy-in.
In our series of Learning at Work Week Legal Updates, we take a look at three things to think about when it comes to learning at work:
- What are some of the common barriers to engagement, and how can you start tackling them?
- How can you make the most of existing informal learning opportunities?
- How can you obtain bespoke training for your business at a reasonable cost?
What are some of the common barriers to engagement?
There can be many reasons behind employees’ reluctance to engage in training. Here are some of the more common ones you may come across and some possible ways to start tackling them:
- A lack of confidence – Sometimes its not that employees don’t want to engage in training but they are worried about doing so, they may for example lack confidence if they haven’t been actively involved in learning for a while, if they are unsure what the training will involve or if it requires them to acquire new knowledge, skills or practices that they consider challenging.
Encouraging employees to discuss any training needs they may have or to talk about any concerns can help to identify any individual issues to enable you to take appropriate steps to address them. Sometimes being clear about what the training will involve, the Company’s expectations around learning outcomes and any support available can help to get employees onboard. Remember to be alert for issues, such as the need to make reasonable adjustments in some circumstances if an employee has a disability.
- Feeling that upskilling / refresher training isn’t required – If an employee is good at their job and/or has been doing it for a while, they may not see the value in training, to them or the business. Communication here is key – explaining the need for and purpose of training in what for many businesses is often a competitive and fast-paced environment, and how it can contribute to the Company’s success is often all that’s needed.
- Time or workload pressure – If employees view training as just another thing to add to their long ‘to-do ‘ list, this can lead to a reluctance to engage. They are also likely to be spending more training time worrying about their mounting workload than learning, so the full benefit of the training won’t be received. Monitoring workload levels and supporting employees to factor in time for training, coupled with ensuring the duration of the training is appropriate for your business, can remove what for some employees is a significant barrier to engagement. An easy timesaver can be for your employees to receive training at your premises or via an online platform, such as Teams, cutting out the need for travel time.
- Unsuitable training format – To be most effective, training should be engaging – Friday afternoon’s ‘death by PowerPoint’ is unlikely to be music to the ears of many employees and will probably be met with quiet reluctance rather than generating a buzz. So, amongst other things, consider the format the training will take and the opportunities within it for employees to participate fully and test their learning. Well-designed and delivered training can really help your business and your people to get the most out of the experience.
If you have any questions about training from an HR perspective or you have an employment law matter you would like assistance with, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Learning at Work Week: How can you make the most of existing informal learning opportunities?
One aspect of this year’s Learning at Work theme of ‘Get Connected’ is “how through connecting colleagues through learning across the organisation, [you] can build understanding, skills and knowledge as well as create collaborative cultures and relationships that further support a lifelong learning culture”.
With this in mind, you might want to think about simple ways to regularly incorporate learning into your workplace – you might be surprised at the opportunities and resources you already have for doing this. For example, you may wish to consider:
- ‘Micro-learning’ – Building bite-sized learning into existing structures, such as including refreshers at the end of team meetings, delivering updates at toolbox talks, sharing best practice and successful strategies at quarterly meetings. Over time, it can all add up and benefit your business
- Capitalise on existing knowledge through knowledge sharing – encourage employees to share knowledge or work experiences that could benefit colleagues or the business as a whole, this can help to encourage teamwork and develop best practice and save your business time
- Mentoring – this can be a great way of sharing knowledge and providing support to help employees develop, particularly when they are new to a business or a role
If you’d like to talk about integrating training into your business from an HR perspective, please get in touch.
Learning at Work Week: How can you obtain bespoke training for your business at a reasonable cost?
When it comes to finding the right training for your business there can be a lot to think about, high on the list is likely to be finding high quality training at an affordable price – training that your employees can put into practice to benefit your business. When it comes to HR training for your business, it’s important to get it right.
We offer a wide range of HR training, whether it’s training for employees such as anti-discrimination, harassment and bullying training, or you are looking to empower those with people management responsibility to address a variety of issues effectively, efficiently and safely, we can help.
Key Features
To maximise results, our training packages are:
- Tailored to your business needs and those of attendees, with fully customisable content
- Focused on practical knowledge
- Highly interactive with multiple activities designed to build and test learning
- Specifically created for individual and small group sizes to ensure all attendees are fully able to participate and receive individual attention
- Deliverable in a way that works best for your business – whether that’s in person at your premises or delivered live remotely by Microsoft Teams. We tailor the length of the training to your business to account for key factors such as the amount of time available for training, your preferred training content and maintaining the engagement of attendees
Popular Training Packages
Our most popular training packages include:
- Managing conduct, poor performance and grievances
- Equal opportunities training for managers or employees
- Introduction to people management
- General HR training for managers
Please get in touch with your Employment Law Specialist for further information on our full range of cost-effective training, to discuss your business’s training needs or if you would like a quote.