In today's digital age, organizations have to evolve faster than ever before in order to remain competitive. They need to consistently produce new and improved products or services to stay relevant within their industries.
However, many organizations struggle to maintain a workforce of employees capable of fluidly responding to industry demands and consistently developing inventive, cutting-edge products or services. One potential solution to this problem involves organizations incorporating a "learning culture" into their company ethos.
What Is a Learning Culture?
At the organizational level, learning cultures are built around two core beliefs that all organization leaders must share and promote among employees. These core values are:
- Employees at every level of the organization should value and appreciate the process of learning.
- Employees at every level of the organization should recognize that learning is a continuous process of self-improvement.
When combined, these core values should directly influence an organization's overall philosophy when it comes to hiring, training, promoting and retaining talent. By making these core values part of an organization's overall business ethos, that organization can foster a learning culture.
Organizations centred around learning cultures should provide comprehensive, valuable training to all of their employees. They should also, through company-hosted continuing education programs and incentives, encourage employees at every level of the company to learn new things and develop new skills. Essentially, organizations should not view training as a burden or a barrier but as an integral aspect of creating a successful organization.
There are numerous examples of this, such as what Freedom Mobile achieved with the right tools to create a thriving company culture of learning and development.
Benefits of a Learning Culture
Organizations that foster learning cultures will experience a multitude of benefits, both at the employee/individual and organizational levels. The major benefits are:
- Increased organizational adaptability and success.
When organizations encourage employees to learn new things, improve their abilities, and acquire new skills, these employees will help produce cutting-edge, inventive products and services. Organizations with a learning culture are also able to promote from within the organization, creating a close-knit and meritocratic organizational culture that will consistently attract new talent. One of the most important aspects of this process is creating programs that engage learners and motivate them to keep improving.
- Organizations with a learning culture have higher performing, more productive employees than other organizations.
Employees who are encouraged to view failure not as a detriment, but rather as a natural part of the learning process, will strive to succeed compared with employees who are only punished for failing. In an organization with a learning culture, employees will always push themselves to perform at the highest possible level and will consistently be productive. One of the best ways to accomplish this is with the gamification of the learning and training process.
Watch our webinar, Gamification 101 – What It Is and How to Get Started to engage your eLearners
- Organizations with a learning culture better their employees as individuals.
Organizations that foster a learning culture have employees who better themselves as individuals as they push themselves to learn and master new skills. This also has the effect of improving employee retention for the organization, as employees become happier and more fulfilled.
If you're interested in making your organization a learning culture, but you're not quite sure where to start, we'd love to help! Here at Lambda Solutions, we specialize in assisting organizations in improving their eLearning and training programs and cultivating learning cultures. To learn more about what Lambda Solutions can do for you, click here for our services. Or contact us to chat with one of our eLearning experts.
