How to create a culture of learning and build business resilience
Cultivating a culture of continuous learning helps ensure every employee at your organization thrives. But what steps should employers take to build the optimum learning environment?
We talked to leaders in HR, training and IT to find out the top five things that are critical to creating a learning culture:
1. Give everyone the opportunity to learn about business-transforming technologies
With cloud technology transforming every aspect of how organizations work, all employees should have a chance to learn how they can take advantage of the benefits. Moreover, improving cloud skills helps increase adoption of new systems and ensure people use them effectively.
Financial services provider Absa created a Cloud Incubator initiative to support its digital transformation, and more than 4,500 employees have now received formal cloud skills training. “We did not just want to train the technical people,” says Daleen Pretorius, Head of Cloud Platforms, at Absa. “We wanted to train the tech and the non-tech people and the broader business as well.”
Financial investment management and insurance company Principal Financial is another business that has trained all of its employees on the cloud during an organization-wide digital transformation. Maureen Lonergan, VP, AWS Training and Certification, worked with Principal on the program. “After the training, the CIO said there was a better understanding of why they were moving applications to the cloud,” she says. “But she also saw teams working together that historically hadn't. She saw more innovation coming out.”
2. Treat learning as a long-term investment and build a strategy
It can be easy to only offer training to meet immediate organizational needs. But taking a longer-term view helps you to anticipate progress and prevent future skills bottlenecks, as well as lay the groundwork for more complex learning.
“Once you've covered that groundswell of awareness, everybody's got a common language,” says Absa’s Chief Technology Officer, Suren Pillay. “It then becomes very easy for people to draw down on what they already know, when they start to need deeper training.”
You can use workforce data to predict the skills you are likely to need in the future. “We manage how we upskill and train our internal staff so that they are ready for the world we will create in three to five years,” says Pillay. “It’s a process of skills planning, skills mapping and then creating actionable learning curriculums around it.”
3. Lead by example and recognize achievement
By getting actively in involved in training, leaders can experience the benefits and challenges firsthand and better appreciate their team members' accomplishments.
“Leaders who are also participating in training set the tone for the organization's culture of learning,“ says AWS’s Lonergan.
Give your people time, create an environment that values continuous development, make people comfortable, and recognize their achievements
But leading by example should not stop with the top management. Absa, for instance, found and trained ‘Cloud Champions’ in every department of the business as part of the transformation process.
“They were literally the champions — the advocates of this program,” says Daleen Pretorius, Head of Cloud Platforms at Absa. “They told us what was needed on the floor and what people wanted to do. They played a huge part in the program’s success.”
4. Be curious about your employees' training goals
Employee data helps you to find out what your people want to learn. Absa, for example, carried out MoSCoW (‘must-have, should-have, could-have, will-not-have’) learning needs analysis before beginning its cloud training program, which showed which areas people wanted more training in, and which were less urgent.
“We got a lot of information back so we could determine where the gaps were, and we tailor-made the next steps around those individuals and business units,” says Pretorius.
Using listening tools like employee surveys and pulse checks to gather feedback on learning methods and opportunities can also help you to form your training strategy.
“We think there’s great opportunity to continue innovating in the learning space, and listening to our employees helps us determine what career growth and education investments would be most valuable,” says Ian Wilson, VP, AWS Human Resources.
5. Give employees the chance to learn in different ways
Employers should also be curious about how each individual prefers to learn, and experiment with different ways to reach people.
Many organizations are pushing the boundaries of traditional learning practices.
“Companies and employees alike want training that is designed for the ways they want to learn,” says Lonergan. “Experiential learning modalities can be particularly effective, such as labs, hackathons, or even game-based training, to increase understanding and real-world business application.“
Collecting data on training methods’ effectiveness will also help you decide which training to invest in. It is important to get employee feedback after each session, and understand the impact their learning is having on organizational behavior and processes.
To find out more about building a culture of learning, read AWS’s new global report exploring how senior leaders are using workforce data to develop their employees’ skills and optimize creativity and collaboration.
Leaders can also take advantage of the AWS Learning Needs Analysis, which is a free self-assessment tool that helps identify the organization’s cloud skills gaps and provide a tailored training and certification plan to close them.
