Want to Empower Your Employees? Let Them Learn!

Return on Investment, otherwise known as ROI, doesn’t always have to be applied to business. It can be applied to various areas of your life. In fact, ROI can even be applied to your government employees through learning. Investing in your employees by empowering them through effective learning is one of the best decisions you could make as an employer. Alex Khurgin, Director of Learning and Creative at Grovo, is a firm believer in empowering employees through learning.

Khurgin sat down with Christopher Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER to discuss his company’s take on Deloitte’s “Meet the Modern Learner” and what that means for govies who wish to better their employees’ experience in the modern workplace.

“Learning is the key to personal development in the workplace today,” Khurgin said.

We have all been told that continuous learning is a necessity for improving one’s lifestyle. However, we sometimes forget that this is just as necessary in our work environment as it is in our personal lives. “Continuously learning is very important to keep up with the changes in technology, help sustain a competitive advantage in your business, and to continue to create value for your organization,” Khurgin stated. But, why do people need to find learning opportunities in the workplace?

Without proper empowerment you may have to deal with a waning workforce. “People who don’t feel empowered by their organization to get the learning and development that they need to grow will go out and find it elsewhere,” Khurgin warned. Unfortunately, fostering learning in the modern workplace is no easy task.

In the world we live in, “Each one of us is walking around with a device in our pockets that’s constantly buzzing, blinking, humming and trying to get our attention. You could say that there’s a war for our attention,” Khurgin noted. Plus, as Deloitte’s infographic tells us, most learners won’t watch videos longer than four minutes and employees have only one percent of a typical workweek to focus on training and development. As such, how can government employers make the most out of the time given?

First, you need to provide shortened and focused training. The learning material you provide “has to be short, cut up, and then interspersed with different actions and practice items to help make each of the little units you’re giving people really sticky and applicable,” Khurgin said.

Then, allow room for your employees to discuss the material learned amongst each other. Learners should “have someone else whose learning with them help contextualize the content being learned and discuss how the content is relevant to their work,” Khurgin advised. “Subjecting your own views and what you just learned to the group helps you get feedback. It helps you develop a more sophisticated sense of whatever it is you are learning.”

Overall, organizations have an opportunity to provide various avenues of learning for their employees. Employers can tailor the learning experiences to match the organization’s mission while properly “accompanying it with coaching, feedback, and mentorship,” Khurgin stated.

In the end, “people feel empowered when they get that opportunity for growth,” Khurgin said. Incorporating learning possibilities for your government employees is a necessary component for advancing your organization’s mission. Adapting various learning opportunities within the workplace will ensure the long-term success of the individual, which will translate to a more engaged workforce. So, let them learn!