Fostering a Learning Culture: C&C Search Roundtable
The second session in our HR Advisor series explored a critical aspect of organisational growth: how Talent Management and HR can identify, implement and embed training and development initiatives to facilitate a learning journey in the workplace. As a leading recruitment agency specialising in PA, EA and business support roles, we understand that cultivating a learning culture is key to organisational success.
The Benefits of Investing in Training
Investment in training and development has clear and measurable benefits for businesses. Research shows that companies investing in developing leaders during significant transformations are 2.4 times more likely to hit their performance targets. Additionally, companies that invest in next-gen leaders outperform others by almost 2x on earnings before interest.
Leadership and a Successful Learning Culture
A successful learning culture is driven by leadership. One of the most important factors in fostering such a culture is ensuring that managers actively encourage their teams to participate in training programs. This can be achieved by making training a priority and integrating it into team goals and performance metrics.
Innovative Training Strategies
During the session, one effective strategy that emerged was to commercialise training attendance. Companies could host an annual "learning week" with incentives like team competitions, rewards and lunches with senior partners. These initiatives boost engagement by adding a sense of fun and competition around learning.
Another innovative approach is to charge a team’s budget if members miss training sessions they’ve signed up for. This not only reduces dropout rates but also shifts the mindset of managers to view training as essential, ensuring teams prioritise attendance.
Development Pathways and Talent Retention
Beyond financial benefits, demonstrating clear promotion and developmental pathways attracts and retains higher calibre talent. Incentivising training and development by clearly aligning development with promotions and other development pathways is arguably the most effective way to encourage employees to undertake and engage with training and development opportunities. Recruitment agencies, like C&C Search, consistently see how offering well-defined growth opportunities leads to stronger candidates and longer retention rates for PA, EA and business support roles.
Inevitably, conversational tributaries branched from the common and well-versed challenges around line management and effective leadership in driving a learning culture from the top down. An imperative tool for embedding a strong and effective learning culture is ensuring that top-level leadership drive learning initiatives as business critical from the top down. The discussion emphasised that a learning culture must be actively cultivated and maintained by management to ensure that training initiatives are supported and embraced across all levels of the organisation.
Formalising Learning Processes
To create a truly sustainable learning culture, it is important to formalise learning processes and embed them into the organisation's core values. This can be achieved by integrating learning principles into key areas such as onboarding, performance reviews and even organisational transformations like office moves or leadership changes. When learning becomes a consistent part of the workplace experience, it fosters an environment where continuous improvement is both expected and supported.
Identifying Skills Gaps and Encouraging Feedback
One of the keys to designing a training matrix is identifying skills gaps across the company, team, and individuals. One of the most effective ways to identify these gaps is through 360 feedback, through providing formalised processes and guidelines for 1:1s, appraisals and general performance reviews. A psychologically safe workplace will encourage honest peer and self-reflection, in turn providing more accurate skills gaps and training needs. Additionally, anonymising feedback processes where possible and providing loose guidelines and tick box options can help foster open but also appropriate communication and reduce any apprehensions around sharing honest feedback.
Another practical example of gathering insights on potential training options is through employee surveys. For example, adding questions to annual engagement surveys asking employees which training programs they would find most beneficial can provide valuable insights. Anonymity in these surveys ensures candid feedback, including areas where managers might require additional support.
While gathering insights from employees through surveys and feedback is useful, there are often challenges in encouraging honest and actionable responses. Many employees tend to suggest training programs that are either overly ambitious in terms of cost and time or do not align with business needs.
As with feedback processes, one solution to this challenge is to offer more structured options. For example, HR can provide a curated list of specific training courses or areas for improvement, allowing employees to choose those they feel would benefit them most. This approach ensures that the feedback gathered is both realistic and aligned with organisational goals.
Building a Strong Learning Culture
The roundtable highlighted how building a strong learning culture requires a multi-faceted approach. By identifying skills gaps, facilitating honest feedback, incentivising training, and aligning learning with career progression, HR professionals can lay the foundation for a more engaged, skilled and motivated workforce. To truly gain investment from the leaders in organisations, HR’s duty is to demonstrate how a commitment to training and development is not just about improving individual performance, it’s about driving long-term organisational success.
Thank you all for joining us and sharing your insights on how HR can foster a learning culture in the workplace! For conversations around hiring or training, please email me at grace@candcsearch.co.uk.
