Learning is key to your employees’ professional development
This week is Learning at Work Week 2022, an annual event that aims to build and encourage learning cultures within the place of work. The chosen theme is ‘Learning Uncovered’ which places an emphasis on deepening knowledge and engagement levels in long-term learning.
In a market that is becoming increasingly more candidate-centred the training and development process has never been so important. It is vital to create a training process that works for employees and here’s how that can be achieved.
Review skills and competencies required to perform
When looking to maximise efficiency, businesses need to ensure their people have the skills required to perform. If not, tasks will not be completed to a sufficient level and this impacts the whole business.
As a manager of people, it is your responsibility to help employees understand their current competencies and how they are related to their role. Explain the importance of demonstrating that they have the skills needed to perform their role effectively. By creating a competency profile against a job, both employees and managers can gain a better understanding of strengths and areas of improvement to focus training on.
Identify areas of improvement for learning
Creating profiles of the skills and competencies needed allows a business to identify skills gaps across their teams. This helps to see if an employee is able to perform effectively and allocate relevant training if not.

Create and assign appropriate training to upskill teams
Once areas that require improvement have been identified, managers need to create and assign the appropriate training plans needed to upskill their teams. Create a training programme that works, otherwise, there is no gain for you or your employees.
Training can be created using a variety of techniques. There is traditional classroom-based learning, eLearning, online workshops or tutorial videos. Spend time finding what style of learning suits your employees. That way, you can utilise techniques they find most useful and create a training programme tailored to their learning.
Set objectives and monitor the progress of your employees’ learning
Progress needs to be monitored or the effectiveness of the training cannot be assessed. When creating a training programme a manager needs to set objectives. Ensure you work collaboratively with employees to set realistic and measurable goals. If your team feel they cannot achieve what is being asked of them, then the training is not going to be effective.
Does your current learning and development platform allow you to monitor employees’ progress against set objectives? It’s important for businesses to ensure their platform supports this so managers can track if their employees are on target to meet objectives. Regular evaluation allows people to identify if training is proving effective and how to tailor it if it’s not working.
Plan for the future
Planning allows businesses to look to the future. Your system needs to support future planning by allowing Directors and Managers to identify which employees are on track for more senior positions later in their careers and how to upskill them if they are falling short.
So, we’ve identified how important learning is and essential factors to consider as part of your strategy moving forward. But does your current system have the capabilities needed for an effective learning programme? Find out by generating your free, personalised learning and development report.
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