Continuous Learning at Work: 4 Steps to Start

The fastest way to fall behind today is to stay where you are. 

Moreover, if you are a business owner, this also applies to your employees. If everyone at your company stays right where they are on the skill level, you won’t be able to move forward. This is why more and more companies prioritize upskilling and employee development. How can you be one of those companies? Let’s find out. 

In this article, we will cover everything you need to know about continuous learning, from its definition to its importance for your company. Moreover, I will introduce you to the main formats and four practical steps for fostering the right workplace culture. 

What is continuous learning?

Continuous learning is about acquiring new skills, knowledge, and insights throughout life. In the context of work, it involves building new capabilities and expanding knowledge continuously throughout a career.

It goes beyond one-time training sessions or workshops. Continuous learning involves curiosity, seeking growth opportunities, and adapting to change. In that sense, it’s closely tied to employees' mindsets and workplace culture.

As an employer, it’s also important to remember that continuous learning in the workplace isn’t just about personal development; it’s a strategic advantage. Think about it: employees who are constantly learning and upskilling bring fresh ideas and offer more efficient solutions to existing problems.

By fostering a continuous growth and learning culture, your organization can stay competitive and adapt more swiftly to shifting business environments.

Why continuous learning matters for your organization

As far as we are clear on what continuous learning is, let’s take a deeper dive into uncovering its benefits for your organization. 

Investing in continuous learning will result in: 

• Better employee performance. Employees who keep learning stay sharp and perform better. They are more equipped to handle new challenges, adopt new technologies, and deliver high-quality work. 
• Ongoing learning fuels creativity. When exposed to new ideas and diverse perspectives, your team is more likely to think outside the box and generate innovative solutions.
• Higher employee engagement and retention levels. People naturally want to grow, especially when it directly impacts their careers. Thus, by providing continuous learning opportunities and supporting their growth, you help them feel valued, and they are more likely to stay. 
• Stronger talent. When you take care of your employees’ growth, you build up future leaders. Continuous learning helps you develop internal talent, reducing the need for constant external hiring or dealing with low employee retention levels. 

In fact, continuous learning practices have proven to increase employee productivity by 17% while employee engagement spiked to 86%. Several research studies also suggest that continuous learning opportunities in the workplace positively impact job satisfaction levels, increasing it up to 83% for the firms participating in the study. 

Formats to organize continuous learning 

Knowing the main formats is essential to incorporate continuous learning into the workplace. These include formal learning, social learning, and self-directed learning. 

Formal learning

Formal learning refers to structured learning. Examples of formal learning include structured and scheduled training sessions, workshops, and courses that employees must complete. Other examples include onboarding, compliance training, and upskilling in specific tools. 

Formal learning typically included a clear curriculum and learning objectives. It is part of the continuous learning and an essential component of employee development within the organization. 

Thus, make sure to develop comprehensive formal learning programs and regularly host quality training sessions for your workforce. 

Social learning

“Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do.” 

 

Albert Bandura

This quote by Albert Bandura emphasizes the importance of learning through observation, which is a big part of social learning. Social learning is about learning through collaboration, interaction, shared experience, and observation. It is something that happens quite naturally through peer-to-peer interactions. 

However, there are ways you can encourage social learning among employees. For instance, you can support social learning by creating an internal knowledge-sharing base and hosting fun group learning sessions via a good LMS platform. 

Self-directed learning

Finally, let’s talk about self-directed learning, or self-paced learning. 

Self-directed learning gives employees time and space to decide whether or not and what they want to learn about. So, let’s say you implemented an LMS platform and now offer a library of resources and training programs. 

Well, your employees should not be forced into taking those. Instead, share what you have to offer and motivate them to pick resources they are truly interested in, allowing them to complete those whenever they want to. 

This might involve reading industry blogs, watching instructional videos, attending webinars, or experimenting with new tools. 

Developing a growth mindset in your employees is essential to self-directed learning. 

4 Steps to start fostering continuous learning 

As far as we are clear on the basics of continuous learning, let’s move on to the practical section of this guide. Throughout this section, we will review four steps to start fostering a culture of continuous learning in the workplace. 

These steps include setting a learning culture, making learning accessible, giving employees personalization options, and continuously improving the processes based on employee feedback.

Create a learning culture, not just programs 

The number one thing you must do is understand that it is not just about the programs. You can have the best programs of the highest quality, but zero employee engagement… Do you know why? Because culture and mindset within the workplace matter most. 

So, to ensure the success of your continuous learning initiatives, focus on fostering a learning culture within the company. Start by making sure leaders and management are encouraged to promote this mindset and initiative within their teams. 

To boost motivation, you can offer rewards such as bonuses for completion of training programs and certifications. Another pro tip for you is to encourage knowledge sharing through regular team meetings, collaborative projects, and internal forums.

Make learning accessible and flexible 

The next step is to make learning flexible and accessible. Providing flexible learning options ensures that employees can engage with content that suits their schedules and learning preferences.​

Here are a few tips and strategies for you: 

• Gamify the learning experience. Deloitte implemented gamified learning elements in their training programs, resulting in an 86% increase in employee engagement. 
• Offer mobile learning. When choosing an LMS platform to host all your learning materials, make sure it has a mobile app and provides employees with access to mobile learning. 
• Create micro and nano-learning materials. Those are courses, each session of which lasts from 2 to 10 minutes. Such types of courses allow employees to learn new things on the spot and easily retain the knowledge due to avoiding overload of information. 
• Diverse learning formats. Offer various formats such as online courses, podcasts, videos, and reading materials to cater to different learning styles.

Give employees ownership of their own learning 

Empower employees to take charge of their own learning. Why? Because this will help you increase engagement levels and employee motivation. 

Here are a few strategies for this: 

• Individual learning plans. Collaborate with employees to set personalized learning goals and development plans. 
• Self-directed learning opportunities. Provide resources and platforms that allow employees to pursue learning paths aligned with their interests and career aspirations. 
• Peer learning and mentorship. Facilitate peer-to-peer learning and mentorship programs to encourage knowledge sharing and collaborative growth. 
• Encourage goal setting: Allow employees to set personal learning goals during performance reviews or career planning sessions.

For instance, Unilever is a great company that values the continuous learning of its employees. They aim to upskill their staff by proactively engaging in employee learning and providing them with training as well as informal learning opportunities. 

Use feedback and reflections 

When it comes to the main steps to take for successfully implementing continuous learning in the workplace, let’s not forget about feedback and reflections. Reflection and feedback help employees solidify what they’ve learned, recognize their progress, and identify areas for improvement. 

Think about it, without feedback, students won’t be able to improve and grow, right? The same goes for the employees as they become students for the time being (while they learn). 

For instance, you can integrate post-learning reflections. After each course, workshop, or project, prompt employees to reflect by asking, “What did I learn?” “How can I apply this?” “What would I do differently next time?”

Managers should provide timely and specific feedback. Besides encouraging managers to provide their teams with feedback, also create a culture where team members can give and receive constructive input on shared learning experiences.

Make sure to use shared documents or team retrospectives to capture takeaways from projects or trainings. 

Finally, ensure that the feedback loop is closed by reviewing the reflections regularly during performance check-ins or growth reviews to measure progress. 

Continuous eLearning starts with Uteach

To sum up, incorporating the tools for continuous learning and fostering a learning culture within the organization is one of the best ways to scale your company. Make sure to create materials of different formats, including formal, social, and self-directed, to keep employees engaged throughout the whole journey. 

Also, follow the steps and tips outlined within the article to foster a culture of continuous learning and motivate employees to develop their skills. To help your organization achieve its learning goals, I also wanted to briefly outline a robust learning management system - Uteach. 

Uteach is an all-in-one platform that comes in handy with everything you need to organize company-wide trainings, track employee progress, and foster a culture of continuous learning. Its features range from a website & course builder to a mobile app. You can schedule a free demo with our team to learn more about how you can make continuous learning efficient with Uteach.