When employees know they can grow and develop, it strengthens their motivation. Therefore, individual learning paths are the key to improving your employees' skills and attachments.

Employees highly value job development and mastery, demanding employers to accommodate these parameters for motivated, committed individuals with the right skills. Employee development is therefore essential for the success of your company – and for your employees to succeed in their jobs, explains Mette Nørlem, HR expert and Senior Manager at Lessor Group:

– We love the feeling of being good at our job, which motivates us greatly. However, it is the employer's responsibility to equip employees well to master their jobs. The company must support the development to handle new tasks or challenges. 

Mette Nørlem points out that it is risky if there is too much routine in the employees' tasks – because then the employees will not be challenged enough. And the unfortunate result may be dissatisfied employees who, in the worst case, change jobs. However, it is essential to remember that employees may have different wishes for development. It is a distinguished task for managers to identify individual potential and growth opportunities.

Three trends that keep employees motivated:

• Mastery of the job. Equip employees to master the job they are hired for. This also involves new tasks, challenges, or a desire for development.
  
  
• The proper feedback. Am I heard and seen as an employee? It is becoming increasingly essential to crack the feedback nut so that employees get the correct input at the right time.
  
  
• A good boss. A skilled manager is, year after year, one of the most essential prerequisites for employees to be motivated and happy. It is also typically a bad manager who can make us hand over the PC and key and move on out of 'job land'. The iconic Gallup survey from 2017 found that workers want to feel connected to their job, manager and company. If those ties are not there, they have all the more incentive to quit.

Related article: The five most crucial parameters for employee well-being 

How do you succeed with competency development through e-learning? 

Continuous and systematic work with employee competence development may reminisce a trip to IKEA. Crooked roads, overwhelming possibilities, and far to the finish (and exit). Therefore, according to Mette Nørlem, it is essential that you keep an eye on the ball and remember what is necessary for the development to succeed – both for employees and managers:

– All learning is about translating knowledge into the level of practice that makes sense for the individual employee. The closer you get to practice and concrete learning situations, the more relevant it becomes. Suppose the employee cannot translate new learning into something used in everyday life. In that case, the employee will often find it useless.

With e-learning, you can organize courses, topics, assignments, and exercises so that they are based on the company's reality. Therefore, you are closer to meeting the employees' wishes for relevant development, so they are constantly motivated – to benefit the affiliation and the bottom line. It is also advantageous for your company if the yield is more significant and adapted to your business.

Mette Nørlem has gathered three pieces of advice for you who want to work with employee development through e-learning courses – and succeed with it: 

1. Keep an eye out for different learning styles  
   

   Some types learn best by reading, others by listening; a third group needs to have something in their hands. Switch between text, video, podcast, and some gamification so that the content has variety. 
   
   

2. Put automation on the measurement of competencies
   

   By running e-learning in a system, you can automatically update employees' competency scores after completing courses. Helene must have developed competence to a four on a scale of 1-5, but now, she is a three. Therefore, we send Helene on an e-learning course within the competence area with assignments, exercises, etc. When Helene has completed and passed the course, the system automatically moves Helene up to a four on the scale. This saves you time and ensures that employees are rewarded quickly.
   
   

3. Tailor personalized courses to employees – also in preboarding
   

   While investing in developing and organizing e-learning courses can be beneficial, many opt for pre-existing classes. If you already have numerous courses available, you can seize the golden opportunity to tailor specific course packages to individual employees, including new hires and those undergoing preboarding when motivation is typically high. 

     

Related article: Culture Strengthens Your Business 

Sources:

State of the American Workplace Report, 2017