To answer this question we have to ask ourselves several other questions.
- Which party of the employer/employee relationship is supposed to benefit from the learning or training?
- Is learning for long term or short term gain?
- Should learning apply to work or personal development?
The answer to all three questions is: Both!
Learning is a partnership even if the employer is upskilling the workforce for company benefit. First the trainee (learner) must feel there is enough benefit in it for her or him to put the effort into learning new skills or knowledge; second, the trainee must feel confident enough to apply it once back on the job. They must also feel that they personally benefitted from the effort. That benefit could come in many shapes, feelings of satisfaction about their personal achievement, admiration from others, monetary benefit, personal recognition, the promise of more opportunities. Each learner/trainee will have a personal motivation that moves them forward.
Learning isn’t a pour it in, top it up and it goes into action. Learning requires attitude as well as aptitude. If the employee goes along to a course reluctantly only because they were told to, they will challenge everything that is said, look only for reasons why it won’t work at her/his work, and fail to apply any of their new learning to their job. Then all the learning in any course will not make changes on the shop floor. The new skills will be seen as something related only to the course, and the employer will not achieve the benefits for the company.
So whose responsibility is it to turn learning opportunities into company benefit?
- · The employer?
- · The employee?
- · The trainer?
Okay – you guessed it – all three. Learning and success needs to be valued by the three because it is a partnership. Here are a few ways that trainers and employers might leverage attitude:
Employers: Institute a reliable system of communicating anyone’s training achievements. Make a point of personally congratulating those who pass a course, either face-to-face or via a phone call. Suggest new directions now that this goal is achieved. This can also be done by the HR or trainer on site, but “the boss” always carries more weight in the praise stakes. Measure productivity or a drop in waste so that if there are fewer production problems these too can be shared company wide. It is human nature to try to achieve more in less time. But make sure you are not putting out the message that more production is all you want. Stress the quality you want to achieve and link it back to those who have been training.
Trainers: Use stories to illustrate the potential achievement from the training, not just for the employer/company, but also for the trainee. Store up stories that you read about and learn to tell them like a storyteller. Even if they are not in the trainee’s own industry the trainee will see the parallels. Use motivational speach to pull the trainee onside. Uncover their goals and try to relate them to achievement in the course. Draw the parallels between their own goals and an improvement in productivity or quality as company goals. Take one small improvement in performance and cost it out as a benefit over a full year. The changes can be staggering!
- Heather Sylvawood, Edutech KM Ltd
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