“Evolution made us the ultimate learning machines, and the ultimate learning machines need to be oiled by curiosity.” From the day we are born, curiosity drives a huge portion of our behaviour. It’s human nature to want to know how things work, why things are the way they are, and above all, what else there is to discover and learn. It’s true in life, and it’s also true in the workplace.
Employees are 47% less stressed when learning at work
Research shows that chances for learning, training and growth within a company are the second biggest contributing factor to staff happiness. In fact, a survey carried out by LinkedIn shows that people who spend a portion of their working day learning are 47% less likely to feel stressed. The same report also suggests that staff are “39% more likely to feel productive and successful, 23% more ready to take on additional responsibilities, and 21% more likely to feel confident and happy.” With happy staff members comes a higher standard of work, increased output overall, and a willingness to go the extra mile for a company that values them by encouraging and facilitating them to better themselves professionally.
94% of employees will stay longer at a company if they can learn at work
We know that learning and development is becoming a much bigger priority for companies and employees, and with staff retention being more of a challenge now than ever before, it seems the new question being raised is, how do we make learning a part of our daily work, rather than a luxury only if we have time? With the cost of hiring a new employee at around £3,000 and taking about a month on average, organisations need to be thinking of how to keep their people happy instead of losing good staff to other companies who have got it right.
94% of employees say they’d be more likely to stay longer at a company if it invested in helping them learn. Younger workers are particularly passionate about learning, with around 25% saying it’s what makes them happiest at work. Other key benefits of good employee training include better productivity, less supervision and intervention needed from managers, higher morale amongst the workforce in general, and employees feeling more valued by the company. All of these things are hugely beneficial to a company overall – a united and positive workforce are on average 12% more productive meaning your staff are bringing in more value to your company.
These figures are also worth bearing in mind if you are looking to acquire new talent to your company. People searching for jobs now look extremely closely at company culture as a whole, and the benefits that a company can provide to them. It can be tricky to hire good talent, so making yourself as attractive as possible to quality people is key when recruiting. Putting an emphasis on learning, development and career growth is only ever going to make your company and role more attractive.
What we can take from this is that it makes absolute sense to incorporate learning into your staff members’ daily to-do lists. But what’s the best way to ensure your team are engaging and benefitting from the L&D you’re offering?
Consider how your staff like to learn
One thing to consider is how your staff members prefer to consume their information. Some of us can read something and remember it forever, others may prefer to watch, or share and talk about what we’re learning. While all of us are curious by nature and have an innate desire to constantly learn and develop, no two brains are the same so ensuring your staff are actually taking in the information available to them is as important as offering them training in the first place. Making sure staff are learning relevant skills that they can apply to their jobs or any future role within your organisation is also crucial as this provides a real-life tangible benefit and reason to learn and grow.
Create a community and promote peer-based learning
Creating a learning community within your organisation can be hugely beneficial to the entire workforce. Peer-based learning is an interesting and engaging way to share relevant information that your employees can then apply to their roles. Giving your team the chance to comment on videos or articles, and to follow what their colleagues are reading and watching is a fantastic way to get everyone excited about their professional growth and create a culture of L&D.
Close the skills gap
Launching brand new learning provision will get your team excited, and by choosing the right learning platform, you’ll also have a good overview of who’s learning what, and where you might have a skills shortage that you can easily plug. You may need to hire new talent, or you may discover that allowing your team members extra time to learn a new skill or enhance an existing one could give the business what it needs. Either way, your company will benefit greatly from making sure there are no cracks for anything or anyone to fall through.
Thirst offers organisations everything they need to enable staff to grow professionally, gain skills for their current and future roles, and feel supported and motivated by a community of their peers.
We’d love for you to see for yourself how transformative Thirst is. We’re so confident in our product, everyone who signs up gets started with 14 days of free, unlimited, unrestricted access. What’s more, signing-up is so quick and easy, you can get going in 2 minutes! We won’t take any payment details, and we won’t bother you with sales calls. We don’t know why other learning platforms don’t make things this easy, but that’s the Thirst difference. If you have any questions, simply get in touch using the chat button.
