11 Easy Ways to Promote Learning in 2022: Boosting Workplace Training

Last Updated on

March 29, 2022

Alicja King

As 2022 hurtles towards us, we're urged to look at our successes and our 'could be better's of 2021 when it comes to company goals. Especially that of workplace training.

Why? Well because if you read our last blog about 'The Great Resignation' (kudos if you did, have a biscuit! 🍪 ) the workforce is resigning at an alarming rate! And when 94% of employees said investment in training and development is one of the major reasons they would decide to stay in a role for longer... it's not a goal that should be overlooked.

So, here it is! The best and most definitive list of ways you can promote learning in 2022.

1) Get HR and L&D involved

As we've just covered, learning should be a top interest in businesses - so those in the L&D and HR departments should be involved in business decisions and quarterly goals. If the company leaders make learning a goal then it trickles down to managers and their teams.

2) Encourage event attendance

This is one that I (Alicja, writing this article, breaking the 4th wall to give you a personal anecdote) experienced personally and worked a treat. At the beginning of the year, encourage your team to look up events that would be beneficial to them.

In workplace terms, this is similar to when the teacher would roll in the TV. You're still doing work, but it's different and therefore, exciting! Team members can send their managers a list of events that would be beneficial to their development. If approved, they can attend, take notes, schedule demos, and relay important information to the team.

3) "What do you want to learn"?

Seems obvious, but thinking back to your years of work life, how often have you been asked this? Probably not often. If a course is seen as purely for the company's benefit, an employee won't be excited to take it. So as well as these mandated training courses, take the time to discover what the employees want to learn. Make your employees motivated to pick up new skills.

4) HOW do learners want to learn (how do they learn the best?)

In the same vein, how do your learners want to learn? If your company is set in their ways of delivering courses, you may want to shake up how courses are delivered. Perhaps blended learning, eLearning, or another popular way of teaching new skills would be a welcomed change.

Moreover, how do your learners pick up and retain information? Whether it's auditory, visual or tactical learning, there's a way to adapt their preference to every training course you set. We advise asking and running the following questionnaire to assess each learner - therefore making your courses in 2022 better suited to those taking them.

5) Career progression

When we start 2022 we'll all inevitably be asked about our yearly goals and what we want to achieve in the year ahead. Promote learning by asking each employee what they would like to learn in order to obtain their new goals. Career progression is a great motivator, so linking learning to tangible results will certainly increase course engagement.

However, it's important to remember that if a learner completes their chosen course(s) they need to be rewarded for their dedication. Career progression, wage raise or new opportunities will be expected. ;)

6) Dedicate time to learn

Myskillcamp has this in place and it's proving to be a successful way to promote learning. You see, it's difficult to change the perception of learning from 'something that takes you away from work' to 'something that makes work easier'. Changing this is as simple as blocking off half an hour - an hour a week in everyone's calendar to dedicate to learning. You could set a series of new training courses, enable people to attend workshops, webinars, read business books etc. The simplest way to change the perception of training, is to do so from the top down.

7) Praise those who learn

Those who take time to learn new skills and complete courses need to be rewarded so that the action is repeated. Moreover, courses that are company-wide can be gamified by giving those who complete the course first/with the highest score, a prize. Whether it's a badge, coupon, extra time off, or a Christmas bonus; praising those who take the time to complete courses is a great way to encourage others to do the same.

8) Upgrade the training

Similar to asking learners how they want to learn, it may be time to look at what training your company currently offers. This is especially true if your employees are working from home, or if you hire remote workers. ELearning courses that make use of gamification, video, audio and quizzes will help to boost motivation and performance. Not to mention make it easier for HR and L&D teams to measure performance.

9) Keep learning resources in one place

When we have to scour a website or the company's intranet to find what we're looking for, we soon get frustrated and give up. So if your employees have to search around for courses, they will meet the same fate. That's why a great way to promote learning is to keep all the courses in one place. No more hidden files, broken links, or empty folders. If you don't have a learning management system (or if your current one has limitations) this can be difficult to achieve, especially if your courses have multimedia elements.

If you're interested in keeping all your courses, training files and analytics in one place, feel free to check out how myskillcamp's platform can help achieve this.

10) Measure your successes

As we've just covered, if you're in L&D or HR, promoting learning to employees is important... however, if you really want your training plans to have longevity and backing, they need to be agreed with and promoted by the heads of department and higher. It's only with their backing do they help you promote your training, and it's only with c-suite onboard that you get the necessary funding.

You can do this by correctly measuring ROI. Measuring satisfaction, learning, behavioural changes and performance, with a mixture of quantitive and qualitative methods, will help you prove that the courses are returning the initial investment. While also letting you know how to improve your training courses in the future.

If you're not sure how to measure the success of your training courses, we're here to help. Myskillcamp has a past webinar (now on YouTube) explaining how to measure your courses' success. Watch now.

11) The final piece of the puzzle

You may have noticed that throughout this article we've subtly mentioned how myskillcamp will help with course creation, curation, storage and analytics. - It was very subtle though so you may not have noticed...