9 ideas to help you implement workplace learning and development

1. Create in-house experts and trainers

Many employers pay a premium for outsourced training while overlooking all the in-house skills available. Particularly for technical skills, the people who know your organisation the best are often your employees. Use their specialist knowledge and skills, which they will have developed over their time working in the organisation, to help other employees in ways listed below.

2. Move from the classroom to webinars

Adapt live workshops into online webinars, making them more accessible across your whole organisation, who might not all be in the same place. These sessions are particularly helpful for instruction-based skills or attributes that are dependent on clear communication. For example, explaining a new procedure. Such online meetings lower the average training cost per employee by eliminating travel, room hire or facilities expenses, and catering costs from your budget. The sessions can also be recorded, meaning employees have a value resource to go back to, and other employees who couldn’t take part can watch on demand.

3. Set up a mentoring programme

Mentoring is a very effective way to provide learning opportunities. Pair up senior members of staff with new recruits or those who are less experienced. It will benefit both parties: mentors can impart their wisdom, making them feel valued and that their skills are being utilised, while those being mentored will benefit from having someone to turn to for advice and guidance. It is important to make sure that the mentor and mentee are well-matched in terms of what they want to get out of the programme as both would need support in how to get the best out of a relationship. So, with a bit of initial information and structure, mentoring can be an effective, cost effective, and easy way to develop your workforce.

4. Build up a library of resources, tools and articles

Don’t let that stack of learning and development materials you have piled on your desk or filed away in a cabinet go to waste. It can be turned into an online library or database that people can access quickly if they need to find something out. This can help to reduce research time. You could also explore articles and case studies from your industry to provide fresh inspiration for new training programmes.

5. Create templates

Templates can be a huge timesaver for learning and development teams. Instead of designing from scratch every time, build customisable templates that can be easily adapted to fit your latest project. You’ll save valuable hours that can be spent on other tasks, whilst making sure that all the key parts of learning opportunities are incorporated into any materials produced.

6. Build discussion forums

Online discussion forums and collaborative online spaces create an informal platform for peer-to-peer learning and chats and can replace some of the offline costs of team-building exercises. They give employees the opportunity to build relationships and provide answers to each other’s questions. This saves time as it avoids sending multiple emails and face-to-face conversations with facilitators. Most organisations will have the ability to set these up in house using existing systems and software – for example, Microsoft SharePoint.

7. Avoid using unnecessary content

Less is more. Keep learning content as simple and to the point as possible. Ask yourself whether you really need to include both video and text. Often a video will be self-explanatory, making additional text unnecessary.

8. Use existing resources where available

You don’t always have to pay for good quality resources like stock images, animation, audio editing, image editing and colour design. Consider using tools such as Microsoft clip art, Unsplash, Canva, Audacity, and even YouTube, all of which have excellent learning resources.

9. Be proactive with learning management and feedback

Duplicating training isn’t cost-effective, so keep a clear learning management system and record of who’s done what and which elements of the programme have been the most successful. Ask employees for regular feedback on your initiatives to see what they like, what could be improved, and what can be ditched. This will help to eliminate less useful bits that eat up unnecessary time.

If you’re looking to implement learning and development opportunities in your organisation, speak to our team today. We offer audits to help provide recommendations that are tailored to your organisational goals and maturity.