How To Creating a Culture of Learning

In an age of rapidly changing technology as well as shifting federal laws and regulations, it’s never been more important for companies to spend time and money educating their employees. And thanks to the rise of in-house training and easily accessible e-courses, many businesses are starting to cultivate a culture of learning.  And yours should too.

What exactly is a culture of learning?

It’s a corporate culture that intentionally facilitates learning opportunities and encourages employees to seek professional education and development. A culture of learning rewards employee achievements and celebrates a spirit of learning. Finally, a culture of learning may not look exactly how you think. Traditional methods of professional development and earning CPE credits aren’t just costly, they are also fairly ineffective. That’s why companies with successful cultures of learning are turning to online platforms that offer a variety of courses that can be taken as needed. Flexibility is key in today’s culture of learning.

Why should your company care about creating a culture of learning?

Companies with successful cultures of learning have higher employee engagement rates. And engaged employees are quality employees. They are more productive and less likely to leave your company, which means high employee retention rates. Engaged employees can even affect total shareholder’s return – one study showed that companies with 60-70% engagement rates had more than double the average TSR of companies with only 49-60% engagement.

Companies that create cultures of learning are able to keep up with rapidly changing technology better than others. Because their employees are used to constantly learning, they aren’t thrown when they have to learn to use new software. That means they pick up the new software – or whatever the change is – quickly, getting them back to work faster.

Cultures of learning produce better managers. That’s because companies with successful cultures of learning don’t just focus on hard skills – they also promote continuing education in soft skills like leadership, communication, and conflict resolution. And managers who spend time developing their leadership skills are more effective.

A culture of learning also gives employees a chance to fail. Everyone makes mistakes, but employees can be afraid to own up to those mistakes. In a culture of learning that mistake can be used as a teaching opportunity. Employees will learn from the mistake so it doesn’t get repeated – and so they don’t get swept under the rug.

How can you create a culture of learning?

Make learning easily accessible to your employees with on-demand learning platforms or live in-person training. Offer employees a way to track the courses and training they’ve completed, and reward those who do. And when performing employee evaluations, include measurements for learning as well as performance.  Creating a culture of learning takes time, but it is worth it.

Below are some excellent Illumeo courses on developing a positive and growth conducive culture in organizations. 

1. Company Culture: Creating & Maintaining the Best

2. Culture: Inside the Company & Outside the Country

3. Engaging Your Team to be All In!