Why You Should Encourage Your Employees to Continue their Education
The old saying “Knowledge is power” is definitely applicable to the workplace. Today’s society is evolving faster than ever with new discoveries being made, new techniques being developed, and technology being invented. If your employees continue their education, they will be more likely to meet the demands of rapidly changing fields and technology by having up-to-date knowledge and technical skills.
However, your employees may be hesitant to continue their education due to time, money, and ambivalence about whether or not it will actually help them.
Promoting the continuation of education within the workplace’s culture will compel more of your employees to continue their education in the form of advanced degrees, certificates, conferences/seminars, etc. But how do you get started?
How to Encourage Your Employees to Continue their Education
Trend #1. Fund Educational Costs and Develop Partnerships with Certain Schools
Funding your employees’ schooling will encourage them to continue their education because it will eliminate the burdens of the costs. Developing partnerships with respected, reputable schools will also help because it will direct them to the right programs. Building partnerships with reputable online schools or brick-and-mortar schools that at least have online or hybrid programs is the best idea because it will be convenient for them to go to school and work at the same time.
Trend #2. Schedule Professional Development
Scheduling professional development meetings to teach new discoveries made in the field, new techniques, utilizing new technology, safety, conflict resolution, etc. will ensure that all of your employees will be kept up-to-date even if they do not go back to formal schooling. You can even schedule professional development meetings to discuss the benefits of continuing their education.
Looking for the best way to strengthen current employee skills while helping them develop new ones? Discover the 5 eLearning Benefits for Talent Development and Performance right here!
Trend #3. Send Employees to Conferences or Seminars and Have them Report Back What They Learned
Conferences and seminars are also helpful ways for employees to increase their knowledge. When you hear of these conferences or seminars being held, select a few employees to attend them and report back what they have learned from them.
Trend #4. Create Incentives
Positive reinforcement will make it much more likely that employees will continue their education because that will ensure that they are gaining more than just student loan debt and hours studying and writing papers. Offering promotions, raises, and other perks (e.g. more vacation time, better health benefits, bringing pets to work, etc.) will provide employees with the incentive to continue their education because their life at work will improve as a result.
One of the most effective and cost-effective ways to incentivize learners is with engaging gamified content. Get your learning game on with this webinar on Gamification 101 – What It Is and How to Get Started?
Trend #5. Provide On-the-Job Training
On-the-job training provides employees with the chance to learn new facts and skills hands-on. This is one of the best forms of learning because it will show them how the new knowledge or skills apply to the job and requires little to no work after the workday is over.
Before implementing new On-The-Job Training, make sure you understand Why Your Learners Need Adaptive Learning with this 30-minute webinar
Trend #6. Lead by Example
Just because you are the boss does not mean that you know everything and acknowledging that will help your employees respect you even more and look up to you as a mentor. Continuing your own education through pursuing an advanced degree, certificate, keeping up with the news and literature in the field, and attending conferences and seminars regularly will show them that you are learning right there with them.
How More Educated Employees Will Benefit Your Company
Even though it may cost money and/or company time to fund your employees’ schooling, sending them to conferences or seminars, hiring speakers for professional development, or providing on-the-job training, the Organizational Benefits of Fostering a Learning Culture for Employees are immense.
In order for a company to survive, it must keep up with advancements in the field. Having employees well-trained to tackle tomorrow will ensure the continuity of the company. Consumers will want to interact with professionals who are knowledgeable, so well-educated professionals will drive more consumers to your business. Having employees who are receiving more perks at work because of continuing education will mean they are happier, which will drive productivity. Encouraging employees to continue their education and seeing which ones will follow through will help you identify future leaders. More educated employees will benefit everyone: the employer, themselves, and the consumers.
To summarize the 6 trends:
Want to learn more about the benefits eLearning can bring to your business? Read on:
- Why Businesses Should Look to eLearning for Continuing Education
- Moodle User Guide Chapter 1: Introduction to Moodle
- Ask Me Anything! eLearning Best Practices
- Top 5 eLearning Best Practices from 2019
Disclaimer: This article was contributed by guest blogger Kevin Gardner. Kevin graduated with a BS in Computer Science and an MBA from UCLA. He works as a business consultant for InnovateBTS where he helps companies integrate technology to improve performance. He shares his knowledge and expertise not only with his clients but with his fellow bloggers and readers.
The views and opinions expressed belong to the guest blogger alone, and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or opinions of Lambda Solutions.
