Fostering a culture of continuous learning has become essential for organisations aiming to thrive, adapt, and build organisational success.
Kate Shead, HR Executive at Telviva, highlights how HR can cultivate a culture of continuous learning to enhance individual performance, while propelling the entire organisation forward.
Q: How can HR foster a workplace culture that supports continuous learning?
A: It starts with the business having a clear strategy. Where are we going and how do we plan to get there?
At this point HR acts as a business partner to help departments understand how this translates to jobs, skills, structure and people priorities.
Then, getting the basics of best people practice right. Nothing helps eliminate tension and inefficiencies as much as a high trust, high functioning and supportive foundation. Seeking to hire and retain a winning team is essential. Having a group of the right people in the right jobs, behind a clear vision, in a high functioning environment, makes a business more likely to have a motivated workforce who will embrace continuous improvement and learning.
Q: How can HR leaders ensure that managers actively support and encourage continuous learning within their teams?
A: In the context of my response in the point above, I have always enjoyed Liz Wiseman’s Multiplier concept.
In a high functioning environment a business can coach and encourage managers to identify themselves as ignitors of others’ potential. As HR, I think we should always appeal to the leader within. A manager can be inspired to see themselves as a centre of excellence and a multiplier of the individual and team's capabilities.
Q: What strategies can HR use to motivate employees to also take ownership of their own learning journeys?
A: An approach that has worked well for Telviva is one of promoting Personal Best performance. Encouraging team members to strive to achieve their personal best, rather than compete for top spot, fosters self-worth, persistence and is outcomes-based. This way, a leader can support individuals to set improvement challenges that are personal and directly aligned to an employee’s values. This is a great approach for most people, but particularly those who battle with confidence or fear of failure.
Q: How can HR address resistance from employees who may feel that continuous learning adds to their workload?
A: There will always be an element of this. Not everyone is highly motivated all of the time and there are many factors that can influence this. I think to an extent this is normal and we shouldn’t think that we have failed just because someone is not up for the challenge.
We should seek to understand an individual’s resistance and then work with them to overcome it. It could be helping someone reframe a limiting belief or understanding that an overwhelmed single parent just can’t fit it in right now.
Q: How can HR ensure that learning opportunities are inclusive and accessible to employees across all levels?
A: I think learning is coming in so many different ways in this day and age. If we’re planning correctly and ensuring that our skills development initiatives are diverse and that budgets are correctly prioritised we should be able to get this right. It’s always important to reflect and review to tweak and improve.
There remains a place for the traditional approach to skills development, but a company needs to complement these initiatives with the short intervention, self-paced, on-demand learning platforms.
There is also a focus on building a Telviva Academy of company-specific product and skills training. This combination allows the organisation to provide focus where it is needed and allows employees to develop new skills in an agile, accessible manner.
If we’re planning correctly and ensuring that our skills development initiatives are diverse and that budgets are correctly prioritised, we should be able to get this right.
