Did you know that companies that prioritize employee development demonstrate higher profitability by 11%? To achieve this growth and experience a slew of other business benefits, companies are increasingly investing in building a strong learning culture in the workplace. Let’s dive into what a good learning culture is and how to approach developing one. 

 

What Is a Learning Culture? 

A learning culture is a work environment that encourages and supports continuous learning. It promotes professional growth and places high value on acquiring new skills and knowledge. Companies with strong learning cultures empower employees to experiment, exchange expertise, take risks, and learn from their mistakes. 

Here’s what Robert J Grossman, Professor of Management Studies in the US, says about a strong learning culture: “A learning culture consists of a community of workers instilled with a growth mindset. People not only want to learn and apply what they’ve learned to help their organization, they also feel compelled to share their knowledge with others.”

Why invest? Implementing an organization’s culture of learning and development impacts companies in several ways:

• Higher job satisfaction. According to a LinkedIn study, employees are 21% more likely to feel confident, happy, and fulfilled in a company with a strong learning culture.
• Better performance. The same study shows that workers are 39% more likely to increase productivity and do their jobs successfully in companies that promote continuous learning.
• More adaptability. Organizations with high-impact learning cultures show a greater ability to adapt and identify capability risks, resulting in steady growth. 
• Improved employer branding and employee retention. 76% of employees say they’re more likely to stay with a company that provides continuous learning. 

 

Build a Learning Culture in 10 Actionable Strategies

SURVEY THE CURRENT TRAINING LANDSCAPE 

Conduct thorough research to assess how employees currently learn in your company: 

• Gather employee feedback
• Hold sessions with managers and other stakeholders
• Review all current training activities 

Use this research to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses in your learning processes, and then define a business strategy aimed at consistent.

DEFINE A LEARNING FRAMEWORK 

Creating a clear framework will help staff navigate and take ownership of their development journey. This includes establishing a clear career development roadmap, a competency framework, and a checklist of the skills each employee must have for their current and future roles. 

These frameworks can inform managers when it comes to creating individual talent development plans for employees.

SET THE TONE RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING 

Employee onboarding is an opportunity to initiate new hires into the organization’s learning culture right away. Make sure your new employee onboarding includes not only organizational values, attitudes, and behaviors but also a detailed overview of your company’s learning culture, opportunities, and expectations. The sooner they adapt to the culture, the sooner they’ll start reaping the rewards.

MAKE LEARNING ACCESSIBLE 

Common learning barriers in an organization typically include: 

• Lack of awareness. Employees don’t know training exists or where to find it. 
• Ineffective delivery methods. Staff can’t access training easily. 
• Long processes. Ineffective software is making it difficult to access training. 

To remove these roadblocks, invest in a robust learning management system (LMS). A good LMS like iSpring Learn makes learning accessible and convenient:

• It’s a centralized knowledge hub that employees can access 24/7, even from mobile devices.
• The LMS provides learners with interactive content they will really enjoy. 
• It facilitates social learning and effective knowledge sharing. 

FACILITATE SOCIAL LEARNING 

Not all workplace learning occurs during formal training sessions. Much of it happens through social learning and the exchange of ideas. By encouraging peer-to-peer learning, you can distill a culture of continuous education in your company: 

• Use your LMS to start employee discussions on training topics.
• Implement a mentorship program for knowledge transfer between experienced and newer employees.
• Form "learning circles" where employees discuss shared interests and industry trends.

PROVIDE EMPLOYEES WITH ENGAGING CONTENT 

Develop compelling content that’s relevant to your workforce’s needs and interests. Choose from a variety of training types and formats and see which ones resonate with your employees: 

• Slide-based courses
• Video lectures and presentations
• Interactive quizzes
• Role-play simulations
• Workshops and discussions, etc. 

MAKE LEARNING FUN 

Dull, dry training is a death sentence for your knowledge culture. Gamification is an excellent hack for motivating, engaging, and rewarding trainees. An LMS with built-in gamification mechanics makes it easy to liven up training sessions by awarding learners with points and badges. Leaderboards will show who’s engaged in the training and who’s lagging.

Incorporating creative storytelling into training is another way to sidestep formal learning. Whether it’s building entertaining plot twists through branching scenarios, interactive quizzes, or role-plays, adding a splash of fun to training will work wonders in terms of enhancing learner engagement and retention.

PROMOTE YOUR LEARNING CULTURE 

A lack of awareness can dampen your efforts to build a culture of knowledge. Promote your learning initiatives to cultivate employee engagement: 

• Spread awareness. Collaborate with managers to help spread the word, hold info sessions, and/or start an email campaign to share learning news, expectations, and tips. 
• Highlight the benefits. Communicate the why behind building a culture of learning and what’s in it for employees. 
• Create policies. Formalizing L&D processes and policies and sharing them with employees integrates learning into your company core. 
• Look beyond the obvious. Introduce learning initiatives like lunch-and-learns, designated development days, learning communities, and after-action reviews.

FOSTER A FEEDBACK CULTURE 

Feedback is integral to an effective learning culture. Encourage employees to share their feedback on the overall learning experience in your organization. These insights will give you valuable ideas on how you can optimize your learning culture strategy and where you’re getting it right. 

The best ways to gather this constructive feedback are through surveys (which can be delivered within your LMS), informal sessions, and one-on-one meetings with managers. There’s another added benefit of fostering a feedback culture: you’ll create a sense of community and collaboration within the business, uniting staff with a shared learning goal of driving personal and professional development.

MEASURE THE RESULTS AND TWEAK YOUR STRATEGY

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a learning culture. It takes time and some tweaks along the way. That’s where a robust LMS will come in handy again. Use LMS analytics and reporting to measure the results of your training initiatives. That way, you can see what’s working and what’s not. Turn this data into actual changes in your learning strategy.

Monitoring assessment results in your LMS is also an excellent way to identify gaps in your training. What information or skills training do employees need but aren’t currently available? Are many employees getting a specific answer wrong? This could indicate a knowledge gap or subpar quality of your learning content. 

Bottom line: Building a strong learning culture is a fantastic investment in the success of your business. Remember that it’s a consolidated organizational effort that takes time, and the trial-and-error approach is often necessary to discover what best motivates and engages your team.

 

 

Damian Klein 

Customer Success team lead at iSpring Solutions