Learning Is Central to Well-Being

Mar 17 • Written by Julie Dozier

Personal and professional development are well-being drivers that organizations need to leverage.

It’s our second Tangram-iversary! To mark the occasion, we are reflecting on patterns we’ve noticed over the last year with our clients and across the industry. This is also the second anniversary of the pandemic, the effects of which are still very present the workplace.

Tremendous talent upheaval in the last year has caused many organizations to examine and strengthen what they offer employees. Retention is critical. Attracting talent is a huge focus. But these prospective and new (and existing!) employees have priorities that go beyond the pay, benefits, and flexible working arrangements that comprise the typical employee value proposition.

An employee’s experience with personal and professional development begins with onboarding and continues through every stage of the employee journey. Ongoing opportunities to learn in a supportive growth environment are central to employee satisfaction in the workplace. Positive or negative, these opportunities will impact their feelings about their new role and the confidence they feel in their future at the organization.

We know this, but does the rest of the organization? Take these steps to promote your offerings and remind your organization how important learning is in attracting and retaining employees and creating ongoing engagement.

Bring your recruiters and leaders into the loop.

Learning opportunities are not something that recruiters typically discuss in their calls with candidates, but they should! Imagine the relief you would feel as a prospective candidate knowing you were joining an organization that has a world-class L&D approach, starting with onboarding and continuing at every stage of the employee journey. Let’s educate our organizations so they have that understanding. Let’s make sure our leaders and managers know what’s available and can communicate the learning approach in interviews and with their current teams.

How Tangram can help: We develop marketing campaigns that help learning teams promote the development opportunities available to employees and communicate the benefits and results they will experience.

Create user-friendly learning paths to do the heavy lifting.

As you educate your organization about your L&D approach, you will find it easier to be able to point everyone to targeted learning paths that are designed just for them. Taking that extra step to create learning paths allows you to say, “Right here — at the click of this button! — is a clear learning path we have designed just for your team. In this path, you’ll find a bunch of self-paced courses you can take, workshops you can sign up for, and resources that can support you in the flow of work. And it’s all geared toward the core skills you need in your role.” Learning platforms have come a long way, and many of them seem easy to navigate, but there’s often more we can do to improve the experience. Let’s make everything so user-friendly and easy that learners don’t have to spend their energy navigating and finding something — they can just jump in and start learning.

How Tangram can help: We help our clients create learning paths that give employees and managers direction and ideas so they can be developing themselves and their teams. The goal here is to ensure there are enough learning paths that every employee is on a learning journey throughout their time with your organization.

Publicize the connections between learning and well-being.

Awareness about well-being has been so important during the pandemic and has been positioned as the key to successful remote and hybrid working. However, we are not hearing enough organizations include personal and professional development in their well-being definitions. Learning is a well-being driver that organizations need to leverage. Work with your HR and Communications teams to strengthen this connection for employees. Talk about the power of learning to add balance and improve your satisfaction at work. Ask your leaders to share this message with their teams and encourage them to take time to learn and develop new skills. Share stories from employees about the impact of learning on their well-being.

How Tangram can help: We can help you develop messaging and comms materials to tell that story and show how learning can change your organization.

This is a pivotal time as organizations everywhere seek to improve the employee experience. Increased communication and focus on the power of continuous learning to improve well-being will help L&D teams make the case that more investment in learning is needed. Infusing the employee journey with meaningful learning experiences will renew our employees and enable them to achieve their personal and professional goals.

Tangram Learning helps organizations build a stronger learning culture. We use our proven change management techniques to cultivate new learner behaviors and build a strong case for change that engages leaders and stakeholders. We develop campaigns that create buzz and effectively promote learning programs and create resources that enable employees to truly own their development.