Continued from yesterday’s post, here are more tips for training, engaging, and developing your employees in an era of distractions and big data.
Encourage Informal Learning, Skills Building, and Continuing Education
If you inspire and implement a companywide learning culture, your employees will be excited about pursuing informal learning opportunities that align with their interests and roles. If they’re engaged in continuing education courses or are learning skills and acquiring information on their own that will allow them to excel in their current and future roles, they’ll be much more engaged and less distracted.
Share Curated Content
By sharing valuable and reputable curated content with your employees, you’re keeping them updated on relevant data, trends, and information inside your company, marketplace, and industry. And when they have access to important information that is relevant and helpful to their everyday roles, they’ll be more engaged and interested in what they’re doing on a day-to-day basis.
Provide Real-Time and Relevant Feedback
According to research, providing feedback can increase profitability and employee performance. Most employees, especially those from newer generations, want to receive in-the-moment feedback from their employers, peers, and customers. Yet, less than 30% say they receive it. If you want your employees to stay engaged and continue to learn, coach them in the moment, and offer instantaneous feedback, especially when you’re recognizing their achievements.
Inspire Social Learning
Allow employees across departments and regions to collaborate and share best practices, data, and information with one another. And, allow them to talk about what they’re doing with one another and to ask questions of one another. When they’re able to do this, they’ll be much more engaged in what they’re doing and will explore ways they can help others and themselves develop their skills and expertise.
Offer Coaching and Mentorships, Especially for Leadership Development
Eighty-seven percent of Millennial employees have expressed that they no longer want to simply collect a paycheck while they’re at work. They want their jobs to be developmental opportunities where they learn and grow with purpose. And they want to develop their leadership skills.
To keep your employees engaged, offer them real developmental and learning opportunities that interest them and that are aligned with their desired career trajectories. Use employee data to develop engaging, personalized, and on-demand learning content and to create mentorship programs.
Align Employees’ L&D Priorities with Company Goals
Overall, you must ensure your L&D programs and technology are aligned with both your employees’ personal learning goals and your company’s strategic goals. For instance, if you develop a mentorship program, you’ll want to make sure it matches up with what your employees will find valuable while aligning it with the company’s objective to boost employee productivity metrics. And then you’ll want to track and review that data about productivity on an ongoing basis to see if your program is accomplishing its goals. Otherwise, your programs and implementations will not be effective or serve a real purpose for your organization.
Follow the tips above and in yesterday’s post to keep your employees engaged and focused in an era full of distractions and big data.