A company’s success can be based on its ability to adapt and learn continuously. Implementing a learning culture within a company is a genuine strategy for promoting employee well-being, boosting team performance and remaining competitive in the marketplace. Here are the 6 must haves for a successful corporate learning culture.
1. Internal mobility
The first point is intentional internal mobility, which is an approach designed to encourage a company’s employees to explore several career opportunities within the company. Unlike simple internal mobility linked to job changes for organizational reasons, here, the intentional factor is really based on a proactive approach to career development. At Learning Technologies 2024, Eileen Oliver-Free (Principal Talent Partner at Linkedin) declared that almost half (46%) of Gen Z professionals also said that they would spend more time learning to get a promotion.
Intentional internal mobility makes it possible to improve the development of employees’ skills and knowledge, to encourage professional growth but also to actively develop internal talent and retain it. Finally, this organisational flexibility enables the organisation to adapt to change by exploiting every internal skill without resorting to external recruitment.
2. Active career development
Active career development is a committed approach to one’s own career path. People who adopt this career path are capable of self-assessment, identifying their skills and their short- and medium-term objectives. They are also looking for training that can also be drawn from AI to acquire new skills in a constantly changing professional environment. According to a study quoted by Eileen Oliver-Free: more than three out of four employees (78%) expressed a strong need for course recommendations based on their personal career goals and skills gaps. Finally, they regularly adjust their career paths in line with their changing interests and emerging opportunities.
This approach is not only individual, it can also be encouraged by companies who are also seeking to promote a culture of development and learning that contributes to the success of the organization.
3. Buy-in from managers
Managers are also a key pillar of the learning culture. They play a key role in shaping their teams’ attitudes to skills development and learning by creating an environment that is conducive to a learning culture. Career-minded employees are looking for managers to mentor them: 91% of employees cite their managers as an important factor in their desire to learn and experiment at work (Eileen Oliver-Free – Principal Talent Partner at Linkedin).
Managers who embrace this culture all demonstrate leadership and support training and development initiatives by allocating dedicated time to learning and providing the necessary resources. Managers attracted by this organizational culture bring a positive dynamic to learning. When they lead by example and support the development of skills, this helps to boost team motivation and create an environment conducive to professional growth.
4. Leaders as role models
The responsibility of company leaders is to promote a learning culture by embodying the values and behaviors associated with continuous learning. In the same way, as managers, leaders inspire their teams to engage in professional development. Ultimately, when leaders see learning as an essential element of business success, employees follow. If employees notice that leaders prioritize learning, they will look to them as an example and capitalize on the organization’s investment in learning.
The values of learning must also be embodied by company leaders by showing the importance of intellectual curiosity and the constant search for improvement. Transparency is a key issue, creating an environment where learning is not seen as an end goal but as an ongoing collective process. If managers concretely share their own experiences, including challenges and mistakes, they also indirectly encourage their teams to take risks by being a source of proposals.
5. Flexible learning
As part of the constant drive for competitiveness, it is now possible for employees to choose how and when they acquire new skills in the workplace. This new culture must offer employees multiple and more flexible learning opportunities. This is known as “flexible training”, which adapts to the pace of individual work and learning. This means that all employees can learn at their own pace, on a medium of their choice and in the environment that suits them best. As well as remaining competitive, the company trains its employees in the latest challenges in the sector, making them more productive and improving employee motivation.
All employees have different learning needs, so here are some examples of flexible learning. The company can offer microlearning, which is a learning method based on very short modules of less than 5 minutes, available at any time. Or it can simply offer training in the form of webinars, enabling employees to take part in interactive sessions at a distance. Coaching is a new method that is developing more and more, contributing to well-being and skills development. Finally, this type of learning can also be achieved by getting employees to work on cross-departmental projects that encourage the acquisition of skills learned by other departments.
6. Social learning
This last type of learning is based on the idea that the best way to learn something is to observe others doing it. Social interaction between peers plays a decisive role in society. Developing a sense of belonging, or even community, can encourage the sharing of knowledge and skills. According to a study quoted by Eileen Oliver-Free at Learning Technologies 2024, 91% of employees who learn together are more successful, and 86% of them find that learning is more effective when there is more than one person.
There are a multitude of ways to implement social learning within a company. Firstly, if social interaction between peers plays a decisive role, organise events such as afterworks to enable employees to deepen their knowledge, or Lunch & Learns, which are fun workshops organized in the company during the lunch break on a specific subject. Finally, one last solution for creating a working environment where mistakes are tolerated and learning is valued is to set up a 360° feedback system. This is an evaluation system that allows employees to receive constructive feedback from several different sources, such as their peers or managers.
A learning culture is essential for healthy and successful growth. As well as developing employees’ skills, the implementation of these 6 ‘must haves’ could enable the company to create a dynamic working environment that stimulates the creativity, development, and fulfillment of all its employees.
