67% of employees need to learn faster because of changes at work according to a recent survey from Fosway.
It’s easy to identify with time pressures whether due to change or not but mostly we are all under pressure to get more done in less time.
Some organisations have faced this for longer than others. What can we learn from them?
Finding time for workplace learning has always been an especially strong challenge for LLPs, management consultancies and some creative businesses where you have a big disparity between major “fee-earners” and others.
The fee earners maximise billing time by frequently work punishing hours and (be that due to perception or reality) and require support from the rest of the organisation to capitalise on the organisation’s income.
The demands on support staff in-turn reduce the time available for their personal development. Classroom training can often be halted during or before it even starts due to ‘demands from above’.
LiveTime Learning recommends:
Only using classroom training for key, major initiatives e.g. specific soft skills training or part of a change project that requires a lot of practice, role play and/or reflection.
Thereafter, digital, on-demand learning is ideal for point of need training – video, TED Talks or some of the myriad self-directed e-learning available.
But this cannot however work in isolation, for three main reasons:
It is not the only way we learn.
The learning is rarely at the literal point of need, but more at ‘point of allowance’ when employees can slot it in around demands for other work deemed ‘urgent’ by others.
People want to feel special still, and sometimes have time set aside for them where they can share and learn with others.
An alternative solution
A live webinar or virtual classroom is a great support to on-demand resources. 30 or 60-minutes of learning gives employees a break and a hit of learning simultaneously. Staff can learn with like-minded colleagues in similar situations and no-one is going to begrudge half an hour to an hour, so employees don’t get called away before or during the webinar –all parties are happy.
If you cannot find time for live webinars, see if there is an opportunity to have selected coaching or mentoring sessions for support staff – even if this can prove more (and even prohibitively) expensive, it shows a great commitment to busy people in roles where they have little control over their own time. Again, like a webinar or virtual classroom, it has the ‘event’ type status (even if only 1:1) so it does not get cancelled or interrupted.
