Fostering a culture of continuous learning helps ensure that every employee in your organization can thrive. But what steps should employers take to create an optimal learning environment? How to create a learning corporate culture to improve business continuity? Amazon Cloud Technology communicated with the leaders of human resources, training and IT departments, and learned the five elements that are crucial to creating a learning corporate culture.
Give everyone the opportunity to learn technologies that can transform your business
Given that cloud technologies are reshaping every aspect of how businesses work, all employees should have the opportunity to learn how to take advantage of them. Additionally, improving cloud skills can help increase the adoption rate of new systems and ensure employees use them effectively.
Absa, a financial services provider, has developed a cloud technology incubator plan to support its digital transformation, and more than 4,500 employees have received formal cloud skills training.
Principal Financial, an American financial investment management and insurance company, is another company that provides cloud skills training to all employees during the digital transformation of the entire enterprise. Maureen Lonergan, vice president of training and certification of Amazon cloud technology, cooperated with Principal Financial to carry out the training plan. "
Treat learning as a long-term investment and develop a strategy
It is easy to only provide training that meets the immediate needs of the business. However, planning for the long term will help organizations anticipate learning progress, prevent future skills bottlenecks, and help lay the groundwork for more complex learning.
“Once you catch this wave of awareness, everyone has a common language,” said Absa Chief Technology Officer Suren Pillay. acquired knowledge.”
Employee data can be used to predict skills that may need training in the future. “We do long-term planning in terms of how we upskill our people internally, how we train them so they are ready for the future and the world that we’re going to create in the next three to five years,” Pillay said. It involves skills planning, skills blueprinting, and then designing practical learning courses around the skills."
Lead by example and recognize achievement
By actively participating in the training, leadership can experience first-hand the benefits and challenges, and gain a better appreciation for how difficult it is for team members to achieve.
“Leadership training sets the tone for the learning culture of the organization,” says Amazon Cloud Technology’s Lonergan. “Cloud Champions” for each business unit and train them.
Be curious about your employees' training goals
Employee data can help companies understand what employees want to learn. Absa, for example, conducted a MoSCoW (“must have, should have, can, and won’t”) learning needs analysis before embarking on its cloud training program to understand in which areas employees would like more training and in which areas The training is not so urgent.
“We got a lot of information, so we could identify where the gaps were, and we tailored our next steps around those individuals and business units,” Pretorius said.
Utilizing listening tools such as employee surveys and trend surveys to gather feedback on learning approaches and opportunities can also help develop a training strategy.
“We believe there is a great opportunity to continue to innovate when it comes to learning, and listening to our employees helps us determine which career development and education investments are most valuable,” said Ian Wilson, vice president of human resources at Amazon Cloud Technologies.
Give employees the opportunity to adopt different learning styles
Employers should also understand which learning style each employee prefers and try to expose employees to different styles. Many businesses are pushing the boundaries of traditional learning practices.
“Both companies and employees expect training to be designed around how employees prefer to learn,” says Lonergan. “Experiential learning models can be particularly effective, such as labs, hackathons, or even game-based training, which deepen employee understanding, enabling employees to then apply what they have learned to the real business.”
Collecting data on the effectiveness of training methods will also help companies decide what type of training to invest in. Employee feedback should be collected after each training session to understand how their learning will affect organizational behavior and processes.
Leaders can also use the Amazon Cloud Technology Learning Needs Analysis, a free self-assessment tool, to help determine where a company's cloud skills gaps are, and to tailor training and certification programs to fill them. these gaps.
Building a more resilient business from the inside out - the latest global report on Amazon Cloud Technologies
The executive report builds on research by the Financial Times, gleaning insights from 500 business leaders around the world. The study found:
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Business leaders with advanced data strategies are more confident that they can achieve the sustainability, diversity and upskilling goals they set for the future than those with little or no data on their workforce.
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67% of business leaders believe it is important to realize the potential within the organization rather than relying on external talent.
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58% of business leaders say they need to use data more effectively to plan and identify future skills needs.