4 Ways to Empower Employees Through Learning

Are we doing our best to empower employees through learning? Maybe not. Only one-third of employees in the U.S. say their organization does a good job with learning management. Maybe it’s because while 78% of employees think that managers should discuss learning opportunities with them, only 37% said they do a good job at it.

We need to do a better job. Here are four ways you can ensure your staff are ready, willing, and able to handle their tasks.

1. Give Employees a Budget for Ongoing Training

Roughly 90% of employees want training that is complete, easy to understand, personalized for them, and fun. By giving employees a personalized budget for ongoing training including courses, certifications, conferences, and books that are relevant to their industry, they are more likely to pick the training that meets their needs.

2. Offer Personalized Training Benefits

While it’s true that not all employees are created equal, they are also not all motivated by the same training. Offering employees a budget for benefits like training courses and qualifications will give them more flexibility in the training that they receive. By helping them select personalized benefits it will help put the decision about what they bone up on in their hands and they will appreciate the benefit more.

3. Train for Upcoming Automation

Artificial intelligence will soon arrive in a business near you (or in yours!) and employees are going to need to be ready for the change to their roles. Companies are expected to spend $150 billion in artificial intelligence by 2020, and that gives some employees an opportunity to embrace this change and improve their skills to prepare for what is coming.

While over 75% of employees recognize opportunities in artificial intelligence and automation to empower them in the workplace, they admit that a lack of transparency from their employer is a major cause of their concern. One way to overcome this is for managers that know the change is coming to help employees that are wary of the change. By showing them how AI and automation will impact their jobs and communicating that they want to help them, managers can help motivate employees to get excited about the future.

4. Improve Your Employees’ Multicultural Dexterity

We are all striving to appreciate the uniqueness of different races, genders, religions, etc. These can also provide uniqueness within the workplace and can positively impact workforce interactions.

As employees continue to learn through training, having better multicultural dexterity will allow them to step into unfamiliar situations at work with new people and shift to an appropriate mindset for the new environment in which they are working. This is especially important for companies that are worldwide or spread over a wide geographic area. One way to encourage this is to have employees travel and interact with employees in other offices to help improve communication and collaboration along with their multicultural dexterity.

Getting Ready for the Future

Your employees want to work hard for you. Empower them to go above and beyond by providing them with ample learning and training opportunities.

Author Profile Jon Forknell is the Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions, Inc., a software marketing company specializing in employee scheduling software, including ScheduleBase employee scheduling software, and other business software solutions. In the past, Jon has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Atlas Business Solutions was named as one of Software Magazine’s Top 500 Software Companies in 2004 through 2007, and 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.