Why The Habit Of Continuous Learning Is Important
Learning, as they say, is a never-ending process and is very crucial for growth. And as a working professional, indulging yourself in continuous learning paves the way toward success.
The thing with learning is that it has evolved with time. The interesting fact is that learning never stops. It is a continuous process that does end with a degree or when you settle down with a good job.
You will always find something new to learn every day. As human beings, we have adapted to learning through various means in between all the chaotic developments.
Let’s delve in and know more about what exactly it is.
What is Continuous Learning?
Continuous learning is a concept where your employees are provided with the opportunity to make learning a part of their work. It is about developing skills, and knowledge, and acquiring abilities that make them more proficient in their job. It is a process of constant learning throughout their job life.
The idea of continuous learning is only possible if your employees are eager to learn and grow their skillset at an individual level. They should not be dependent on a group for the participation of this practice. Moreover, the employees have to be enthusiastic, keen, and open to lifelong learning.
Let’s delve in and understand how you can foster continuous learning in your modern-day organization.
Why Continuous learning?
To keep up with the advancements of today’s world, you need to constantly update yourself with new skills and knowledge. According to a survey, 54% of employees have said that it is essential for them to get training and develop new skills throughout their work life to keep up with the changes in the workplace.
70% of employees have also expressed how development opportunities and job-related training influenced their decision to stay at their job.
Going by the numbers, it has become clear that continuously learning new skills and acquiring fresh information will provide your employee with more opportunities. Opportunities that will prepare them well for the ever-changing corporate world.
How to Create a Culture of Continuous Learning
1. Be Open To Growth
Continuous learning is only possible when everyone in the organization is open to the idea of growth. The first step requires you to table the benefits in front of everyone on how growth is a good thing.
Initially, employees might be skeptical about why continuous learning is necessary. However, as a leader, it is crucial to make them understand how learning will help them professionally and personally. Make them believe in the idea of growth, how coaching will upskill them, and their ability to adapt to new things.
2. Set Learning Goals
Anything without a proper goal will lose credibility, and people will drift away from it. To keep things interesting, set learning goals and push everyone to achieve them in their desired time frame. Keep it transparent and make employees accountable for what they do.
At the end of the learning cycle, acknowledge employees after successfully achieving a skill. Reward and recognize their efforts. This will keep the enthusiasm, and more employees will be eager to join the continuous learning cycle.
3. Feedback Is Important
When you start a continuous learning program in an organization, always keep in mind to provide necessary feedback. A program without no feedback is going to backfire and employees will move away from it. When employees see that the program has its own feedback system then they will be able to see the bigger picture. It creates reliability and a belief that the system will help them elevate their work performance with proper feedback.
Keep the feedback constructive, simple, and informative. Communicate well with others, work with them on their problems and help them learn with the right approach.
It is always about learning from mistakes and acquiring new things in the process. And feedbacks are the strongest foundation of a learning system.
4. Open Book Clubs
One of the greatest sources to learn and acquire knowledge on any topic are books. Even if you are not an avid reader, you can elevate your learning process with books.
And if you want to push a learning work culture in your organization, try to open a book club. Here the employees can join the club for free and explore a wide category of books.
Help your employees to choose books of their interest so that they can start from somewhere. Once they get the knack of reading books then let them go in-depth in any subject and help them explore. This will keep them engaged and will increase their adaptability power. Moreover, it will let them acquire new information, data, and facts.
In the long run, it will enhance your learning program and encourage employees to invest their time in something meaningful.
5. Arrange Trips
The corporate world is constantly changing and evolving with time. To give a taste of how the development is taking place, arrange field trips to your client’s office. Help employees understand how other companies work.
Once your employees get the exposure and that practical experience of the real world then they are more likely to implement it in their work. It becomes a great learning experience for everyone which elevates their work style as it adds an extra layer of knowledge making them more efficient and productive.
5 Benefits of Continuous Learning
1. Helps Focus on Goals
Brainstorming sessions to plan out future goals is vital. But what is more essential is to figure out how these future goals are going to impact everyone within the organization. Form developmental goals to channel and influence your objectives and targets.
Continuous learning helps you to keep track of all the minor and major changes that have occurred with time. In the long run, it helps you maintain constant focus on the goals that you have set for your organization.
2. Retaining Becomes Easy
Every employer wants to avoid a situation where their prized employees decide to leave the organization. It may be due to a lack of compensation or poor relationship at work. But most of your employees leave due to lack of career growth. Statistics have revealed that 74% of employees felt they weren't achieving their full potential due to a lack of development opportunities.
That is a huge number but when you provide a good learning and training program your employees are likely to prosper. They will be able to fulfill their expected potential and feel more inclined towards the organization. Resulting in loyalty from the employees and reducing employee attrition.
3. Skill Improvement For Employees
Replacing an employee has always been a hectic venture for companies. It becomes a tedious job and a costly one too. Research has shown that 40% of employees who don’t receive the necessary job training will leave their positions within the first year. In the long run, this can have a negative impact on your organization.
However, if you look at the positive side, it also opens up opportunities for your current employees. You may ask how?
Well, when an employee leaves, their void needs to be filled. But immediate replacement will take time. As a manager, you can upskill your existing employees and fill the void instantaneously.
When continuous learning is practiced it helps your employees to adapt to new skill sets. It also increases the ability of your current workforce to boost their profile in different fields with some extra training.
Moreover, today's workplaces are technologically advanced which needs additional skills, and acquiring those skills is only possible with continuous learning and keeping yourself updated in a loop.
4. Increase in Engagement
Employers want their employees to stay engaged in their jobs and become proficient in what they do. But at times it may become too monotonous for every employee to stick to one job all the time. It is because of the fact that there is no real opportunity for them to learn something new. The learning curve dips and employees become disengaged.
However, when there is a culture of continuous learning in an organization, engagement is the result you get. Training and developmental sessions not only focus on building strengths but also helps in acquiring knowledge of this ever-changing world. It is one of the best ways to provide personal and professional development to build engagement.
5. Ideas that Spark
With the technological changes happening at a constant rate, it has become necessary for an organization to keep up with them. And to maintain pace, learning has become a priority. Learning gives endless opportunities to approach these changes and have a smoother workflow in the workplace. It also creates different perspectives on the things that you already know.
The more knowledge you gather about different fields, the better it becomes to understand the changes all around. Continuous learning also allows you to come up with new ideas and innovative solutions to the modern-day problems which you face in the workplace.
Let’s Conclude to Continue
To be able to prepare yourself well for the coming future continuous learning is vital. But continuous learning cannot be instilled in just a day. It takes time for everyone in an organization to get used to it. Time to adjust to a new environment, time to study, time to upgrade, and time to open up to endless possibilities. With time the learning process also becomes a habit that helps you to explore and grasp the knowledge about all the things that change continuously.
Mrinmoy Rabha is a content writer and digital marketer at Vantage Circle. He is an avid follower of football and passionate about singing. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com
