How do you encourage employees to keep learning and growing? - SmartBrief

All Articles Leadership Management How do you encourage employees to keep learning and growing?

How do you encourage employees to keep learning and growing?

4 min read

Management

The Young Entrepreneur Council is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. Read previous SmartBlogs posts by YEC.

If you enjoy this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our newsletters on small business and entrepreneurialism.

Q. If they have fairly set jobs or tasks, how do you (or departmental managers in your business) encourage your employees to keep learning and growing?

1. Encourage them to join specific organizations

We encourage employees to join industry-specific organizations. These organizations offer webinars, online courses, in-person meetings/luncheons and conferences. We encourage employees to share their new knowledge in lunch-and-learns for the rest of the organization so we can all benefit. — Angela Harless, AcrobatAnt

2. Create a career path road map

Establish a transparent career path for your employees so they see they have an opportunity for growth. The path might lead to more responsibility and higher compensation, but it might also be the chance to perform a completely different function and learn new skills. Either way, a career path road map is essential for talent management including positions with set jobs or tasks. — Eddie Lou, Shiftgig

3. Start a library

You likely have a collection of business books that, after reading, now just sit on a shelf at home. Why not bring some books into the office? If a dedicated library room is out of the question, even a single bookshelf will do. Be sure to communicate to your team that these books are free for the taking. Announce new books every month, and encourage those people taking advantage of the library. — David Ciccarelli, Voices.com

4. Link skills to certain tasks

Work performance and personal confidence are firmly bound together. Therefore, I observe and point out positive traits and talents I see in each employee. Then, I link them to a skill that I want them to learn to help them grow. This helps inspire them to work harder and learn more because they are learning things that build upon their existing talents. — Kevin Xu, Mebo International

5. Open and maintain a feedback loop

One of the biggest drivers of workplace engagement is to feel like you have input. As a manager, you likely have that. But it’s important to offer it to all your employees. Not only will it keep them motivated and switched on, it’ll also help you continually improve processes. — Fan Bi, Blank Label

6. Challenge them

It’s important to challenge everyone on your team, no matter how redundant his or her typical day may be. We accomplish this by launching new initiatives and giving everyone some kind of responsibility for something they haven’t yet done for the business. This allows your employees to grow and learn new skills. — Lane Campbell, June, Inc.

7. Send podcasts during work hours

One easy way to keep my team growing is to send them links to podcasts that I enjoyed listening to. I encourage them to listen while they perform repetitive parts of their job. — Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now

8. Make ongoing learning a core component of your culture

Encourage and reward employees for thinking about their personal development. Create individual development plans and take a vested interest in helping your employees think about and articulate their development goals. — Brendon Schrader, Antenna

9. Incentivize and include your employees

Always offer clear incentives. For example, setting a time of the week to take on a new project or to tinker with a new skill can have tremendous benefits for both the employee and the business. Similarly, you can offer an education compensation program to train employees in new skills applicable to your business. As you look for opportunities to grow, be sure to bring your employees along. — Matt Doyle, Excel Builders

10. Encourage masterminds and industry conferences

I make it clear to my employees my desire for them to advance. Continuing education is one of the biggest value adds. I encourage them to build a case for why they should attend a mastermind, industry conference or online course. When presenting their case to me they know to include why the company should cover the investment and what they project the ROI to the company to be. — Joshua Lee, StandOut Authority

11. Use LearnCore

We use LearnCore to create lessons using uploaded industry resources, client profiles, new publications updates and other materials the company should be aware of. We also encourage teams to be involved in our internal content creation. Our account strategy team helped create our “Insider’s Guide to Content Marketing,” which highlights ways they work with clients, and it was a huge success! — Kelsey Meyer, Influence & Co.