Hack:
Maximizing learning agility offering a trade-off between salary and personal growth
Learning agility is a business imperative for organizations to stay relevant in the market
Organizations should offer sponsorships and dedicated time to employees to pursue their educational interests beyond their job titles, at any time during their careers
Different levels of initiatives should be provided to match the personal needs of employees: Fast Learning, Intense Learning and Full-time Scholarships
To enable the cultural shift, new policies in the organizations should incentivize life-long learners, and penalize professionals that are not investing in their growth, or in the development of their teams
- The vast majority of the workforce stops pursuing formal learning after high school/university, relying exclusively on sporadic training and on-the-job learning for the rest of their career, leveraging theoretical frameworks and methodologies that are increasingly obsolete and outdated
- Permeability between career tracks in most companies is limited due to the rigidity of the formal learning backgrounds of the employees. Sales managers are not able to enter an engineering career track, as well as HR managers struggle becoming R&D researchers. Most employees are constrained to a track for an educational decision made when they were 18 years old
- Employees are hardly incentivized to pursue life-long learning, having targets focused only on business results and immediate value generated to the business. This is a short-term strategy that makes organizations rigid and change averse
- Innovation requires diversity; rigid career tracks and limited learning agility minimize the cross-functional collaboration required to generate advanced insights
Forward looking companies that want to maximize learning agility of their workforce, could offer three learning initiatives to employees and empower them to control their career and personal growth, beyond the L&D corporate training offering:
Fast learning
This opportunity is offered to employees every year, at every level, in any role, from the janitor to the executive, to pursue educational sprints on any topic during their careers
- A tradeoff is offered to every employee in any position: they can sacrifice from 5% to 30% of their annual salary to get 5% to 30% of their working time converted to formal education
- The company will not only protect their time dedicated to education, but offer to pay the cost of the learning initiatives up to an agreed maximum cap that could vary by seniority level
- Employees will be able to choose any topic of their interest, regardless of their background or organizational priorities
Intense learning
Intense Learning is an initiative designed to maximize the amount of certifications in topics that are strategic for the organization, and to strongly expand the employees' skillset far beyond their job title requirements
- Employees can sacrifice 30% to 50% of their salary to dedicate themselves on personal education for 30% to 50% of their time
- To ensure minimal disruption of productivity, HR and line managers will need to approve the learning plan. Veto power can be applied only temporarily: if an employee makes an Intense Learning request, it can be postponed of maximum 1 year before being automatically approved
- The company will pay the cost of the learning initiatives up to an agreed maximum cap, at the condition that the certification is achieved
- The selected topic of the learning initiative needs to be among the priorities of the organization. A list is made available to all employees, spanning across industry and functional topics
- There is no requirement of experience nor specific backgrounds to select a prioritized topic. An Executive Assistant could spend 6 months on a Python coding course, as well as a marketing executive could dedicate 4 months to supply chain management
Full-time scholarship
Full-time scholarships will allow maximum permeability between career tracks, maximize market value of employees, and ensure deep personal growth on strategic topics that didn't even exist in the past
- Employees can dedicate 1 to 4 years without salary to bachelors / masters / MBAs / PhDs
- The selected topic of the degree needs to be among the priorities of the organization. A list is made available to all employees, spanning across industry and functional topics
- HR and line managers will need to approve the scholarship. Performance Management and tenure conditions apply (e.g. scholarships will be only available to top quartile performers that have spent at least 2 years in the current role). If the conditions are met, HR and line managers will be able to postpone the scholarship of maximum 2 years before automatic approval
- Requirements for experiences or backgrounds will be determined by the educational entities awarding the degrees. An executive can decide to spend 3 years on a bachelor in organizational psychology, as well as an accountant could get a PhD in Chemistry, as long as approved by the respective universities
- Scholarships are paid in full up to an agreed maximum cap, at the condition that the degree is achieved
- Employees are committed to stay in the company for at least the same amount of years of the degree after achieving it. Violation of the agreement will require to pay back the full scholarship
In parallel to these learning initiatives, organizations will need to embed a series of policies to incentivize learning
- Define strict educational requirements for each career step: certifications, degrees and topic expertise will need to become key criteria not only for entry level, but for managerial jobs as well
- Personal learning achievements have to become a key component of the performance management system
- Supporting direct reports in pursuing personal education will become a key criteria for promotion to higher roles
Benefits for the individual
- Employees will be able to accumulate courses, certifications, degrees and doctorates on multiple topics, spaced along their long term career
- Life-long education will strengthen personal learning agility, curiosity and understanding of the world, the market and the business
- Market value of employees will increase, becoming more desirable for career opportunities inside and outside the organization
Benefits for the organization
- Lower resistance to change, thanks to a workforce that is more curios towards diverse topics, versatile in multiple skills, open to learn more and adapt
- Higher cross-functional collaboration, with employees that can speak multiple technical languages, discuss about topics outside their job descriptions, and able to transition in new roles with accelerated learning curves
- Reduced cost of the workforce, which will spend on average more time on educational activities without a salary. The investment made by the company will be minimal compared to the amount of money saved from the salaries
- Making the best of a crisis. When a tough market trend hits the company, the option to reduce FTEs and increase education of employees will not only temporarily reduce costs, but at the end of the crisis the company will be able to leverage an upskilled workforce
- Increased easiness of mobility. Versatility of employees will ensure more opportunities to move across functions, business lines and geographies
- Shaping a workforce eager to learn. Employees that will prefer to keep their salary rather than invest in education, will be penalized in career progression, and eventually will be likely to decide to quit the company. On the other hand, employees that will invest more in their long-life education, will be rewarded and promoted to form the new leadership team
Benefits for society
- Upskilling and reskilling the workforce is a top priority for governments. Companies that invest in education will accelerate this process
- Decreased unemployment. Even after large scale layoffs, employees will be able to find other jobs more easily due to their stronger, more versatile skillset
- Increased investment in the education system. Universities will benefit of higher demand for high quality education, beyond the usual 18-25 years old students. This would pump research funds, PhDs scholarships and accelerate scientific progress
- Accelerated innovation. Companies full of rapid learners will be able to generate more patents, innovative products and solutions that will benefit the masses, solving complex problems that are afflicting the society
Productivity challenge
Companies that implement educational activities are open to send employees for long spells of time outside their jobs in leaves of absence. If not managed properly and systematically, this can disrupt productivity and quality of services
FTE challenge
Having a significant percentage of employees away from work, will require a larger number of FTEs joining the organization. Recruiting teams will need to aggressively and pre-emptively identify talent to cover all the positions left vacant by the life-long learners
Retention challenge
Upskilled employees are in high demand. Competitors, startups and other companies will do their best to poach them as soon as they achieve the right amount of skills and education level. If the organization is not capable to engage and sustain the careers of the life-long learners, they will be likely to get the most out of the learning benefits of the company and leave for higher salaries and better conditions
Mindset challenge
Many current top performers are not willing to spend any time on learning initiatives, nor lose a penny of their salary. While life-long learning is in the best interest of the company in the long term, this may imply losing employees that are currently delivering outstanding results
How to start:
- Survey and interview a sample of employees to understand what is the amount of interest towards the different learning initiative, and to estimate how many people will actually benefit from it
- Set up a team to manage the life-long learning initiatives, including administration, tracking of progress, scholarships, partnership with universities and educational entities, syndications with business managers and employees
- Pilot first the Fast Learning initiative with a key leader from the C-Suite that is happy to sponsor it in her business unit
You need to register in order to submit a comment.