Training and development teams have improved exponentially in recent years, in large part because organizations increasingly see the value of employee training and development and have increasingly allocated funding to support those efforts.
While those tasked with training and development have made great strides, there’s still work to do because of the ever-changing nature of the workplace and global economy and the corresponding change in the skills and abilities needed to succeed.
In an article for Forbes, an expert panel calls out 11 topics learning and development teams often overlook. We won’t go through all 11, but here are a few that caught our attention.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness has increasingly been recognized for its mental health benefits. Some experts believe this meditation technique can and should also be leveraged in the workplace.
“We’ve seen very few employers fully incorporate mindfulness into learning and development programs,” says Natalie Norfus with The Norfus Firm, PLLC. “The Covid-19 pandemic and related events have had a tremendous impact on our collective psyche and how we process conflict and misunderstandings,” she says. “Being able to pause and understand where your colleagues are coming from is a crucial way to prevent small issues from ballooning.”
Accountability
Ownership and accountability are increasingly important in a tight labor market because there are simply fewer people to pass the buck to.
“Employee training only raises awareness but accountability changes culture,” says Robyn Arville of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “One-off events need to be deployed as part of a more comprehensive change-making effort. It should also be interconnected with a cumulative set of interventions to understand the root causes of why training is needed. Accountability measures help during pre- and post-onboarding, longitudinal impact tracking, evidence-based practices and behavior metrics.”
Career Paths in the Organization
While employees certainly need to know how to perform their current job duties, a key part of a strong employee retention strategy involves developing workers for greater responsibility further along in their careers. Unfortunately, many employers don’t do a good job of educating their workers on available opportunities.
“Employers must value the whole person, looking beyond an employee’s current role to see where they may be able to grow within the organization,” says Shay David with retrain.ai. “When HR innovators invite employees to explore career-pathing options and learn about upskilling opportunities, they boost employee engagement and retention—and their best people are statistically less likely to look for their next opportunity elsewhere.”
Those interested in reading the full list of frequently overlooked training and development topics can find it here.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
The post Frequently Overlooked Topics in Employee Training appeared first on HR Daily Advisor.