Why a Learning Culture Makes for Happy, Productive Employees

A few good reasons to prioritize employee learning

MIT researcher Peter Senge first introduced the learning organization concept in the early 1990s. His ideas still influence how businesses approach leadership and learning today. In the decades since evidence has continually shown that a learning culture benefits organizations. Learning at work can improve productivity, engagement, and talent retention, among other benefits.

The right tools and resources make it easy to create an effective learning culture. Courses for online, in-person, and hybrid learning are all effective. Start strengthening the learning culture in your organization with these ideas.

For more insights on workplace learning, check out our e-book: Reskilling, Retention, and Resilience.

What is a culture of learning?

According to Training Industry, a learning culture is “a set of organizational practices, values, and processes within a workplace.” They go on to describe a culture where continuous employee learning betters the individual and the organization. 

So what does that mean in plain terms? Basically, a learning culture is one where:

• The company values and enables employees’ learning 
• Employees have support and space to learn
• Both team members and organizations experience benefits
  

It’s easier to aspire to a learning culture than it is to foster one. Despite its clear personal and organizational value, learning often takes a back seat to day-to-day demands. To succeed, companies must build systems to protect and uphold learning as a planned, supported, and continual part of the workplace culture.  

The benefits of a strong learning culture

Researchers continue to find close links between learning, employee engagement, and productivity at work. For example:

• McKinsey notes that learning and development play an important role in talent motivation, engagement, and retention. 
• LinkedIn recently found that 7 in 10 people surveyed say learning “improves their sense of connection to their work.” Furthermore, they uncovered that learning is the top retention strategy among surveyed organizations. 
• Orgs focusing on skills are 98 percent more likely to retain their best performers.
• Engaged employees are 17 percent more productive and have 70 percent fewer safety issues, according to Gartner. Those companies also yield 21 percent higher profits.
  

That’s some compelling data in favor of workplace learning! If you’re thinking, “That’s great, but how will we find time for more employee training?” Read on. The next section covers a few actionable strategies to create a continuous learning culture in your organization. 

4 key strategies for building a true learning culture 

Undoubtedly, it takes a leap of faith and solid commitment to build a culture of learning. The strategies below will help you get started on the journey. 

1. Kick off your learning culture at onboarding

A strong onboarding process can improve new hire retention. Effective onboarding gives newcomers the tools to build their confidence and integrate quickly and seamlessly into productive teams and workflows, deepening their commitment to your organization.

When onboarding is intensive, developing media-rich, interactive courses will help sustain learners’ attention. Templates can make the process easier. If the content suits every new employee’s needs, don’t reinvent the wheel—use it as is. Or you can easily customize content for different job levels or functions. For example, a manager might experience one onboarding track while an individual contributor works through an adjusted course. 

2. Share the company vision, messaging, and brand guidelines

Everyone in your organization needs to understand and absorb the company’s vision, messaging, and brand guidelines. When you think about it, every employee represents the company, even if their job function isn’t explicitly a salesperson—so they should be current on what your organization’s all about. 

Employees who better understand your mission make aligned decisions. They’re also more likely to remain personally invested in the job when they understand their role in the organization’s success and mission. However, instilling your company’s vision and values isn’t a one-time event. Plus, your brand will likely continue to evolve.

Here are some tips for ongoing training that keeps everyone aligned and creates agile learners: 

• Highly engaging and interactive learning content will help learners retain information, even as it frequently changes.
• Short multiple choice quizzes are a great quick way to reinforce knowledge, and fill-in-the-blank questions take it a step further by asking learners to recall information on their own.
• Track employee progress and look for spots where they struggled. Then, use that knowledge to intervene with skill-building before the person gets discouraged and disengaged from their work. 

An integrated LMS like Reach makes it effortless to see who’s learning and in which courses to analyze course engagement overall.

3. Share knowledge and build community with town hall meetings

While it’s not easy to get increasingly disparate workforces in the same room for a conversation with leadership or other teams—it’s vital for morale and productivity. Employees appreciate being able to “see and hear” leadership team updates about the state of the organization, their roles in the year’s initiatives, and new products or services. These learning events sharpen focus and bring clarity, which increases productivity. They also provide human connection with leadership and teammates, deepening employees’ investment in the organization as a whole. 

Whether a town hall is in person, remote, or hybrid, structure the content in a way that drives home the key takeaways to support your learning culture. Use a follow-up micro learning and include multimedia such as images and videos to bring routine announcements to life—and encourage employees to absorb content. A tool like Rise automatically adapts content to all devices so employees can stay connected to your messages wherever they are, on whatever device they choose. This is especially important for dispersed, frontline employees. Though these employees make up 80 percent of the workforce, they often don’t get access to the same development opportunities and feel underserved by corporate learning programs.

4. Inspire sales teams to study up on new products and strategies

New playbooks show up regularly in sales, creating the need for sales leaders to share the latest strategies with their teams. Online courses are easy to create, update, and deliver to keep teams current on product features, process developments, and selling points. Use quick build and distribute tools to upskill front liners in soft skills like overcoming sales blockers and negotiating customer pain points. Add role-playing scenarios so learners can encounter challenges, practice skills, make decisions, and understand the potential outcomes of their decisions.

The best part? Creating real-world situations in an e-learning course lets employees make mistakes without real-world consequences. That hands-on training gives learners a safe space to sharpen their skills and build confidence. 

This business strategy isn’t just for sales, though. Use online practice sessions to:

• Try out a learning process where real-life mistakes are costly, such as using large specialty equipment
• Test behavior engaging with a sensitive situation or population 
• Build confidence for a task where speed or recall is mission-critical, such as emergency machine repair or processing order returns in a busy store

A culture of continuous learning is a happy, productive culture

Decades of study reveal that humans have an innate need to learn. Furthermore, continuous learning can foster a “growth mindset” and improve multiple aspects of individual work performance, including self-confidence, motivation, and career prospects. Companies benefit from a learning culture with improved talent retention, better business outcomes, and higher employee engagement.

When people learn fresh skills, they’re eager to try them out. Their confidence also boosts company performance. A supportive structure that empowers employees to learn is integral to a learning culture—and online learning is a great way for employees to learn wherever they are, whenever they want. The resulting improvements make carving out those resources well worth the effort.