As a corporate learning and development professional, you must know the importance of improving skills and obtaining knowledge for employees. No matter the business niche and size, having well-rounded and skilled employees is an important asset to any organization.
According to the Conference Board report, more than a half of Americans (53%) are currently unhappy at work. While there are many reasons why employees are dissatisfied with their job, the skills shift in the market is one of the problems workers face today. This shift makes people feel stressed and depressed, so companies should provide their employees with opportunities for learning and development.
However, fostering a learning culture means nothing unless your workers want to dedicated their time and effort to learning and development. Thus, it’s also crucial for L&D professionals to know how to motivate your employees.
In this article, you can find 6 proven ways that encourage employees to grow in the workplace:
1. Know Your Employees
Making assumptions about what can motivate your workers for learning and development is a waste of time. It’s nearly impossible to motivate your employees if you don’t know them well. We all are different in our needs, wants, and expectations, so it’s important to understand more about your workforce first.
Here are some ways to learn more about your employees:
- Communicate with employees
- Send surveys via email
- Encourage them to share feedback
Once you know what motivates your employees, it doesn’t take much time or effort to implement actionable strategies, satisfy their needs, and therefore lead your company to the positive growth.
2. Discuss Individual L&D Plans
It’s no secret that humans are selfish creatures. While employers are focused on growing their revenue with the help of employees, your workers want to get a clear direction on how to advance their careers. With an individual L&D plan, employees know which skills and knowledge they need to obtain.
Working on a development plan, take into consideration your business goals and employees’ career aspirations. Not only can it help your business grow, but it also can guide employees on what steps they should take as well as motivate them.
3. Tell About Career Opportunities
No matter how ambitious your employees are, sooner or later every human creature wants to grow by status. Thus, it’s no wonder that many workers are interested in career prospects. When it comes to motivation, modern workers want to know career opportunities that are awaiting for them. Just take a look at the numbers:
- 35% of employees will look for a new job if they don’t get a pay raise in the next year
- 44% of workers believe that a pay raise of 25% can improve their happiness at the workplace
- 75% of young workers (Gen Z and Millennials) expect to get a promotion within the first year at work
As you can see, workers expect to get a promotion or pay raise, so it’s important to discuss their opportunities as knowing the future can motivate them struggle for more.
4. Listen to Your Employees’ Needs
If you know why your employees should struggle for development, that’s great. If you know what they want from learning and development, that’s even better. Listening to your workers is a proven way to find out what works best for them, establish long-term relationships with them, and encourage partnership. What is more, it helps to motivate your workforce for learning and development.
As Simon Sinek once said: “Good listeners have a huge advantage. For one, when they engage in conversation, they make people ‘feel’ heard. They ‘feel’ that someone really understands their wants, needs and desires. And for good reason; a good listener does care to understand.”
5. Use eLearning for Corporate Training
Living in the digital era, people have an opportunity to make the most out of their gadgets and save time. With the rise of eLearning, it’s no longer a problem to choose the right online course for your employees. There are many providers that organize private and corporate courses, and learners can complete their tasks in their free time. As a result, employees manage their time and improve their skills without burning out.
6. Invest in Mentoring Programs
Whether you need to motivate new hires or experienced workers, providing a mentoring program is a great way to provide a well-rounded training as mentees can get assistance fast. As specified in the Deloitte Millennial Survey, 94% of mentees claim that they get quality advice and 91% of them believe that mentors are genuinely interested in their personal growth which motivates participants for learning and development. What is more, having a mentor reduces dissatisfaction as people have a reliable person to get their questions answered. All in all, investing in mentoring programs gets positive results.
Conclusion
For every company, it’s important to motivate their employees for learning and development as honing skills and knowledge helps to improve employee performance, and therefore achieve business goals faster. Luckily, L&D professionals know tips and tricks that work well for most organizations, and therefore they can help companies find out actionable ways to motivate their workforce.
Author Bio: Hugh Beaulac is a content manager behind MC2 website who also writes for different blogs to share his tips and tricks on digital marketing and business growth. Outside of work, Hugh is a coffee-addict and music lover. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook to keep in touch.
