92. Flaws and Fixes - The Reality of Your Workplace Development

SPEAKER_00 0:53

And then some solo episodes from myself as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Hello and welcome to this solo episode of the Ways to Change Your Workplace podcast with your host, me, Preena Shah, who is multitasking at the moment. I've got a virus scan running in the background, so if you hear any beeps, that's why. But today I want to talk to you about the problem with your workplace learning and development. I have been doing a lot of work in developing human resources professionals on their employee value proposition. HR lingo, I know. If you're not in HR, you're thinking, what the fuck is that? So an employee value proposition is essentially what your organization is offering you to join them. So it's beyond the benefits and you know rewards, that kind of thing, it's bigger than that. It's essentially how your organization brands itself from a people perspective. So that's what that is. And in my conversations with all of these HR leaders, it's been really interesting. So I've you know got some consulting work to help with creation of said employee value propositions, and we've been doing some employee workshops on you know what's really making you tick, what's not making you tick, and I've done lots of work on employee value propositions uh of late uh this year, and there's a repeat thing that comes up, which is there is a problem with your workplace learning and development programs, people. So that's what I want to talk to you about. So I want to talk to you about five reasons why your learning and development efforts might not work from an employee's perspective, and I want to give you a kind of like a future-focused lens. So, from the conversations I've been having from the ground, the people have spoken, these are their issues, their five issues with their workplace learning and development offerings. Number one is stagnation anxiety. Employees might fear that their skills will become obsolete in the future. Hello, there's AI happening, there's continual change within industry and within the way we work as well. So it's definitely change happening, and lots of employees are definitely feeling that their skills might become obsolete. So the stagnation anxiety is in relation to the fact that many of your learning programs don't address emerging trends, technologies, and emerging new ways of working. So you're not getting that from your workplace, and therefore your stagnation anxiety remains unaddressed. Is that the case for you? As you're listening to this, I'd love to hear back from you. Lots of people email me back or contact me on LinkedIn or whatever, but let me know what your thoughts are in relation to what I share with you today. Point number two about the issue with your learning and development program from your employees' perspective is that there's a lack of personalization. So employees who want to learn want learning pathways tailored to their career aspirations. And generic programs often don't align with individual goals and aspirations. And you know, working in HR, I completely find that I found that myself when I was working in corporate land. Um, there was another team who would be, you know, offering learning and development programs for the organization. But the kind of feedback that I received from the workforce was that hey, but this doesn't really fit my career path or my focus of the next step that I need to get to for my career. So there's a lack of personalization from a learning curation and developmental curation point of view in the workplace. Is that the case for you? Point number three is that there's often a short-term focus. So when learning efforts prioritize immediate skill acquisition over long-term career growth, employees read the bullshit in that and they feel like they're not being prepared for the future job market. So the short-term focus, yes, from a HR perspective or a business perspective, might be very, very valid in terms of bridging whatever gaps you currently have. However, if those skills that you're teaching people are only for the now and not for their long-term career growth, consider why that is the case. Point number four. Your learning and development programs, I'm hearing, are often disconnected from real-world application. Now, what does that mean? I'm hearing from yourselves that you appreciate when learning is directly applicable to your job roles. And if it feels disconnected from your daily work, you are seeing it as a waste of time. So let's look at the kind of training that you have here. Let's open this can of worms, hey? There's a lot of compliance training. So in Australia, there's all sorts of training: emergency management training, manual handling training if you have to you know lift heavy things, there's mandatory um safety training, which usually is boring as fuck. And then if you work in government, I feel for you because oh my gosh, there's even so much more compliance and mandatory training that you have to do. Things such as accountable and ethical decision making. If you don't know what that is, and if you've never done that course before, then you're lucky. Don't even go down that rabbit hole. And if you have done the accountable and ethical decision making course, you know what I'm talking about, and you know how painful it is, and how disconnected from real-world application is. I've gone on a high horse about these kind of compliance courses in the past. If you want to learn more about that, then contact me and we can have a wonderful conversation about that. But the point here is that when courses or when your learning programs are disconnected from real-world application, they are often seen as a waste of time by your employees. And then, last but not least, the fifth point that I'm talking to here is that many people feel in the workplace that they have limited opportunities for upskilling. Now, it's really difficult here when you know we know that employees are looking to get the best kind of development that is like a sexy attraction and retention kind of draw from the HR perspective. However, I'm hearing from the employee perspective that you have limited opportunities for upskilling. What the hell is that about? So I'm hearing that employees want continuous opportunities to upskill. And if learning and development efforts are sporadic, as probably is the case within your workplace, rather than ongoing learning and development programs, you as an employee might feel left behind. Is that the case for you? Let me know. So, why is this happening? Which is the other thing that I really wanted to delve deeper into from the employee perspective. So I now have some feedback, lots of feedback from these people I've been working with on the employee value proposition, and I'm really hearing from the employees' perspective how learning and development teams are really not cutting it at all at this stage. So, this is what I'm hearing from the employees' perspective, they are feeling that learning and development teams often have an obsession with buzzwords. So, your learning and development teams sometimes fall into the trap of chasing the latest learning trends and buzzwords without considering whether these trends are truly beneficial for you, your skill set, and your career growth, and your organizational culture. So, if we were to think about buzzwords, let's talk about um oh my gosh, unconscious bias training. I think that was overdone during COVID, during the pandemic period, and I don't know if that's still a thing. But you will probably know whatever the buzzwords are in terms of development within your organization, and are those buzzwords created by you or are they imposed upon you by your learning and development teams? That's the first issue that employees have with learning and development teams. The second issue that employees have with learning and development teams is that they feel that many of the learning and development teams are micromanaging learning pathways. Now, that's prenolingo. What does that mean? So people feel employees are feeling that learning and development teams are being overly prescriptive in the learning pathways they create, and that is making employees feel like they're on a conveyor belt. It's making you feel like your creativity and curiosity is stifled, and therefore you did your development is very much a one size fits all kind of approach, which is what I'm going to next. So, point number three is that one size fits all approach. Learning and development teams from the employees' perspective, sometimes they are saying adapt a generic approach, assuming that all employees have the same kind of learning needs. And we know now that this is not how people learn. So, in reality, individuals' roles and career stages demand tailored programs, and you can't have a one-size fits-all approach as well because we all learn differently. So, there you go. Now, I banged on about compliance earlier. Let me bang on about it again. So, your employees are actually feeling, learning and development teams, that you guys have an over-emphasis on compliance. So, some of you are prioritizing compliance training to meet regulations, and you are often overlooking your employees' desire for skill development and career growth. And your employees are disengaged if all you are offering them is compliance training. Not cool. The other thing I'm really coming across, and the last point I want to make in relation to learning and development teams, the kind of feedback that I've received from employees from all of this work that I've been doing, is that learning and development teams have outdated content, and that is in an effort to save costs, but your learning and development teams are probably using or reusing outdated content, and this is being perceived as a lack of investment in your employees' current and future needs. So consider from your perspective if this is happening at your workplace. So now I want to flip the script. I've talked to you about how shit your learning and development programs may well be, but what is a solution to this? So I'm going to give you five ways that a learning and development team can be fit for purpose for today's employees' needs, right? So first off, okay, don't freak out, L and D people. First off, personalized learning pathways. Imagine if you offered learning journeys tailored to individuals' unique career goals. Imagine if employees had personalized recommendations so that they're excited to learn, knowing that it's going to be directly relevant to their success. Point number two, curiosity-filled exploration. Now, instead of showing trends down your throat, learning and development would foster curiosity. They'd talk to you, they'd listen with you, they'd encourage you to explore and experiment, ensuring that you're prepared for whatever the future holds and not just chasing the latest buzzwords. So this is curated clearly for you. The other thing that learning and development teams could do is to use data to empower and not survey your employees. So think about it. Share insights about people's progress, helping them to make informed decisions about their development, kind of like a GPS for someone's career, you know, that'd be pretty cool. And then freedom within structure. So I know I have, you know, worked historically in corporate roles, but I have managed learning programs for the organization, and you do need structure, otherwise, it's just a shit show, and you don't want that either. So there's a fine line though. So I'm talking about freedom within structure here. Imagine if your learning journey would be like an open playground with some guiding fences. You would have the freedom to pick and choose your learning path. However, the learning and development team would ensure that those paths lead to meaningful destinations. And I've been doing a lot of work with learning and development teams actually to get a real deep dive into the way that they are working and the way that they are engaging with their workforce from a learning and development perspective to really look under the bonnet of everything that's being offered and whether it is fit for purpose or not, and what can be done to remedy that. So, with that in mind, one of the things I am doing is creating and offering a future-proof learning blueprint for any organizations or any people and culture teams, or especially learning and development teams, who give a shit and who want to really shape things up to create a proper learning culture for fit for your organization. So I will work with you to craft a blueprint that guarantees your workforce's readiness for the future, and it will be tailored completely to the quirks, the wonderfulness of your workforce, so that you can get to where you need to get to. If you want to learn more about it, then my contact details are in the show notes. Let me know. And if you have anything to add in relation to anything that I've mentioned in this podcast today, again, my details are in the show notes. Let me know what you reckon. For now, I wish you well in your learning journey, and I hope that your learning and development teams do bend somewhat. And if they don't, then take learning into your own hands and drop me a message and let's talk to see how I can help you to develop not only yourself but your team and your organization. Bye for now, and I will see you in the next episode. If you like this episode, check out the show notes and sign up for my new lecture. I will help your workplace to be legit. It's full of novel ideas, good food for thought. And if you like this episode, put it on to only two people who will benefit. Also, remember to subscribe to the Way to Train Your Workplace Podcast via your podcast provider. And I will see you in the next episode.