Why organizations are approaching learning all wrong!

Why organizations are approaching learning all wrong!

Learning in the workplace is very important, and learning is the main key and required factors of any organization that wants to improve and be in a competitive environment. Therefore, organizations must have the right approach of learning and prepare employees through constantly learning. That will help them to deal with changes and to have the ability to adapt with conditional changes. Approaching learning right not only will help organizations to improve performance in the long run, but also will increase employees’ productivity and confidence.

 A large number of companies spend a lot of money to train employees in the skills they need to improve corporate performance. In fact, these companies do not have the good strategy to get the benefits from training employees. Few companies see sustained benefits from training employees because they know the best way to improve their employees and when! We could not say formal learning will not help because employees often need new skills to deal with changes in an organization’s strategy or performance, and that could happen by both “formal and informal” learning. Moreover, we need to know the right time to use either formal or informal learning. Organizations can decide that by asking the learner, who is “the employee”. 

 

  

I remember in the company that I used to work in, the company field was a contractor for construction materials and specialized equipment, and we got new construction equipment from the corporate company in Turkey. The company decided to give all the engineers in the company a training about dealing with the new equipment. After the training was done, most of the employees were so upset because they did not get any benefit from the trainer because he was speaking Turkish instead of Arabic or English. Most of the employees said we did not need this course because we already knew how to use the equipment; it just has minor differences. In this case the company lost money and the employees wasted time! 

 Before training begins, organizations must have a strategy to train employees, and after that, measuring the impact.

 

Mashael Aljahdali

Why learning in the workplace is important to me:

I’m learning new things everyday not just from college or work but also from people around me. They make me ask myself questions, and these questions lead me to search for answers. The best and the fastest place for searching is google! I love to ask google to get the first answer, then I try to find documentaries about the subject. However, learning in the workplace is important, but knowing how you learn is more important. Some people are better suited to learn from a textbook or by problem solving.  I like to learn from experiencing the process and watching others. My five reasons why learning in the workplace is important are:

1-     Learning in the workplace is important because it improves confidence. I feel good about myself when I have a new knowledge about my work and enough to make me feel comfortable.

2-     Learning in the workplace opens many doors and provides opportunities: Enhancing my skills and gaining new knowledge in the workplace will give me the opportunity to advance my career. 

3-     Learning in the workplace keeps my mind refreshed: Learning new information and improving skills will help me to keep up with all the organizational change.

4-     Learning in the workplace allows me to communicate intelligently: Learning from my mistakes and gaining new knowledge allows me to put forth my ideas more eloquently in the future.

5-     Learning in the workplace allows for personal development: There is no limit with learning. We need to seek knowledge to improve ourselves and keep up with all the new changes in our work environment.    

Mashael Aljahdali