How companies can evolve their learning culture with eLearning

What’s a learning culture?  

A learning culture is “one in which employees continuously seek, share, and apply new knowledge and skills to improve individual and organizational performance.” (source)  For an employee, working in a culture of learning implies constant access to skills and knowledge, effective communication within the workplace, and constant collaboration with fellow employees. 

Put differently, “characteristics that define learning cultures can vary, but talent development leaders described such essential traits as closely aligned business and learning strategies, organizational values that affirm learning’s importance, and an atmosphere in which learning is so ingrained that it simply becomes a way of life” (source). 

Moreover, the rapid change defines the business environment and the digital space, making a culture of learning necessary, helping organizations keep up with the pace of change, while anticipating future needs and effectively preparing employees to deal with them. 

Let’s see what numbers have to say

Employees acknowledge the importance of a learning culture within the workspace, highlighting its impact on the increased job satisfaction, decreased turnover, and a better time management, according to an eLearning industry article:

•  71% of workers say job training and development increase their job satisfaction
• 94% of workers would stay at their company if their company invested in their careers
• 66% of workers between 18 and 24 years of age ranked upskilling and reskilling as the third-most important benefit when assessing new job opportunities
• eLearning typically takes 40–60% less employee time than learning in a traditional classroom setting

Needless to say, a learning culture is more and more important at the level of the workplace, and switching from a very traditional approach to training to a continuous learning culture does not mean simply changing the curriculum or bringing more training programs, but rather adopting a corporate mindset centered around seeking learning opportunities on your own, as an employee, and knowing that the organization support this approach. 

Case study: Kelloggs journey towards a continuous learning culture

When Kellogg’s Senior Director of Global Learning and Development, Thor Flosason, took over global learning, he described the corporate learning as “classroom heavy, resource heavy, events-driven, not delivered when it was needed”, an approach that opposed his vision to create a valuable learning culture. Thus, what’s the next step after realizing that something needs to change? Coming up with a learning strategy and starting to gradually implement it across the organization, which Kelloggs has done with the help of LinkedIn Learning, as stated in their customer story. The learning strategy included 4 stages to an integrated learning culture, as it follows: 

• The first stage started from the acknowledgement that training was often reactive among the employees, provided exclusively for specific needs, which made the impact of learning unclear. 
• The second stage focused on the implementation of formal learning with the help of eLearning, ensuring the basic learning technology infrastructure.
• The third stage introduced the concept of Agile learning, highlighting the importance of flexibility when it comes to learning and making it accessible to employees whenever it’s needed, wherever it’s needed. Moreover, this step implied an evaluation process, coordinating learning experiences with measurable outcomes. 
• The last stage of their plan centered around the major outcome, meaning the integrated learning culture aimed at from the very beginning. The three major characteristics of this stage were the following: “continuous learning is a key source of business performance, data and technology enable proactive and personalized learning experiences, and learning is integrated into work processes and ways of working” (source). 

To sum up their journey towards an integrated learning culture, it has happened gradually, with specific learning outcomes in mind for every step of the journey, with measurable objectives and a focus on offering employees valuable learning experiences, easily accessible whenever they need them, oriented towards their professional development. 

What about your journey towards integrated learning?

If you know the importance of a learning culture but you have no idea how to start shifting the approach, our learning experts can offer all the support you need. Just drop us a line, we’re always looking forward to becoming a part of a new and exciting learning journey.