Establishing a learning culture within any company is important. If you’ve noticed unproductive staff or low office morale then it could be due to a disconnect somewhere in your learning culture.
The past year has been tough on companies in every sector and for their employees too. As we come out of the other side of the Coronavirus pandemic with a new outlook and a new way of working, what better time to revamp your working dynamic than now?
Here are 6 signs to look out for so you can pinpoint when it’s time for a culture Spring Clean!
“That’s Not My Job”
When times are tough often an employee may have to step into a position unexpectedly to fill a gap. This often happens in the absence of any formal training for their new responsibilities and sees Senior employees thrust into a Management role with no managerial training.
Whilst it’s great that a member of the team has stepped up, the lack of training causes an issue in that they will now teach others to work in the way they do. For example, your senior salesperson may be great at selling but not know how to effectively manage a team of people.
A managerial role possesses multiple elements and it’s more than just telling someone what to do, there are key values and information that should pass smoothly through a strong communication channel. If you are currently experiencing this within your company, it could be time to consider switching up your learning culture.
In implementing a cyclical learning structure you can swiftly keep on top of these changes and know that staff stepping up to new responsibilities are well-prepped for their new role.
Do As I Do, Not As I Say
Without proper training, new managers will begin coaching their team as an offshoot of what they have themselves learnt or been told. This could mean harking back to the only formal training they received at the beginning of their employment contract 10 years ago.
This sees them likely to fall back on their experiences of what worked and what didn’t in order to see success. There’s every chance this could not be in line with company procedure or recent updates to the workflow.
Relaying how it used to be done doesn’t create a positive work dynamic, it just creates confusion. Without a solid foundation of formal training to jump off from, it could lead to disaster.
Fresh Meat
If you’ve recently gone through a rapid turnover of staff or have taken on new hires to offload or rejuvenate your existing teams, the same old training isn’t going to cut it. Your new hires aren’t going to magically reinvigorate the place if they’re subject to the training program that’s been in place since 2010. Underlying issues will likely be a reflection of the initial training given to your team and so you’re doomed to repeat the cycle.
If you’ve found that in the past hiring new team members leads you right back to square 1 in terms of work dynamic or the problems you’re facing, consider a revamp of your training programme. You have to instil a learning culture from day one.
Methods Of Working Aren’t Concrete
Nobody likes to be micromanaged and that’s because we all have different styles of working. How you like to manage your workflow may be done entirely differently by a colleague. When it comes to your sales team, for example, selling styles will massively vary.
So long as you see results it shouldn’t matter, right? Whilst you might think this when it comes to keeping track of the numbers it helps if everyone is reading from the same page. By this I mean you need to have some base, universal rules in place. If your team is using different software to track sales then that’s going to get messy.
In choosing one method of working in terms of how data is managed, you can help bring a little more unity to the team and keep things on track. When you’re training both existing and new employees you should decide what works best for you and ask the team to do the same.
We All Learn Differently
Just as we all like to be free to work in the way that’s most productive for us, we also need to receive training in a way that works best for us. The way one person learns may not be the best way for another to retain the information. Not every person will need the same level of training and some may require a little more support.
Make sure you take into consideration different learning styles, skills and abilities when designing a new learning structure. If your training is only looking to address problems without resolution it can be viewed negatively by the team as an interruption or a dismissal of their hard work thus far.
Consider Specialised Training
You might think training and creating a learning culture should be carried out by HR. They are the best for your team because they understand the organisation’s background, structure and values. Whilst this is true for that area of the business when it comes to the training of specialised teams, you need a specialist in that area. For example, you need someone with a background in professional sales to effectively train your sales team.
If a member of staff doesn’t see any benefit or relevance in the training being proposed to them or it’s the ‘same old’ programme they’ve had to sit through 10 times before, they’re unlikely to take anything new on board let alone attend!
So, seek out relevant specialists within the sector to teach your teams something new and reinvigorating.
