Invest in Your Employees By Investing in Their Learning
Invest in your employees’ learning and they might stick around longer!
According to LinkedIn’s 2019 Workforce Learning Report, a whopping 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer 
if it invested in helping them learn! If helping you engage employees and achieve your employee retention goals isn’t enough of a reason to foster a culture of continuous learning, then check out this list of 16 Darn Good Reasons to Invest in Your Employee Training and Development!
Here are a few fun ways to foster a culture of continuous learning in your workplace, while also helping you engage your employees:
Hold regular lunch n’ learns and munch n’ learns (like lunch n’ learns only over coffee breaks, with snacks food that don’t crunch too loudly).
Create topic-specific mentoring programs that connect people across departments and levels.
Establish a communal library of resources, including the ability to (as some libraries do) “sign out” a person for an hour.
Form a business/personal development book club. Have everyone read the same book and then have a debriefing lunch OR have everyone read a different book that they then have to summarize and recommend to the rest of the group if it’s deemed helpful.
Screen a work-related documentary once a quarter and debrief on the lessons learned after the screening. Turn it into a fun social event by serving popcorn or pizza with the screening.
Hold a personal development day once a year where employees can teach courses to fellow employees on various topics. Pixar Studios allows employees to take up to four hours a week on courses through their Pixar University. Some courses are related to film-making, others touch on health and various art-related topics. Employees at a U.K. firm can sign up for tree-planting, trapeze and exotic dancing lessons because they believe these programs encourage more creativity.
Take advantage of the myriad of e-learning programs available on almost any topic. Make these readily available to your employees.
Do what one of my clients does and hold a draw for several front line employees to attend their leadership conference in exotic places, where often employees never get the chance to experience these development opportunities.
One of the best ways to master a skill is to teach it, so encourage your younger, newer employees to step into training roles whenever possible.
Take responsibility for your own learning – people who do so report being happier and more fulfilled in their lives!
Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of Fame Speaker, highly in-demand international keynote speaker, and the creator of the Culture Leadership Online Academy. Michael is also the author of 8 books, including: The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank; Hire, Inspire, and Fuel Their Fire; and The Jerk-Free Workplace: How You Can Take the Lead to Create a Happier, More Inspiring Workplace. www.MikeKerr.com
