Encourage Participation
Don’t adopt a culture in your workspace that encourages competition among workers. Rather, encourage employees to help each other and share relevant knowledge with one another. A good starting point in promoting a learning environment in the workspace is to find a way to make use of the information that is already present among your employees collectively. This means making time for employees to provide each other with assistance and support.
A concrete way to orchestrate this is by planning regular brief meetings with employees whom may not necessarily work together commonly, so that they can discuss their progress with one another. Employees should also be instructed to assist one another more often, and at times work along colleagues with a different area of expertise, in order to be exposed to new topics and issues. Ensuring your employees can learn to understand each other’s positions makes it easier for them to support and advise one another. That should have a positive effect on your organization’s overall functioning. Giving your employees a certain amount of discretion and authority, rather than spelling out all of their tasks, can encourage them to learn about new methods on their own.
Mentoring and Feedback
Managers or supervisors should be accustomed to teaching. The knowledge they have acquired throughout their careers might be of use to other employees, and should be passed down. It is also their responsibility to set up the right learning opportunities. This means they should arrange employee cooperation in a feasible manner, by determining where it might be needed and how it can be organized.
Supervisors should also organise regular feedback meetings to discuss an employee’s progress. Aside from discussing how employees carry out their assigned work, such meetings can be used to determine ways in which employees could expand their skills or where learning may be needed. A clear schedule for when this happens would be useful here, so that it can become customary for the entire workspace.
Classes
The above two practices are easier to weave into your organization’s standard practices. They can occur often and they do not have to distract employees from their work too much. Occasional classes or workshops can complement this. Since these can take up a considerable amount of time, they might need to occur more sparingly.
Every once in a while, though, if an organization has identified a learning need in its employees, it can be met by way of a class, workshop, or training. Good skills to develop in this manner are languages, which can have an effect on the scope of the company. An organization should also take time to introduce its employees to a new programme or computer tool in this way. This could after all swiftly improve efficiency.
Learning has its value. The above-mentioned practices might be worth considering when developing a learning environment in the workspace.
By: Barbara Haenen