How to Better Motivate Employees to Learn

Most Leaders Would Like to Better Motivate Employees to Learn
While employees appreciate investments in their skills, knowledge, and career development, the day-to-day demands of the business often make learning a challenge.  How can we better motivate employees to learn and make better learning motivation a reality?

Focus on the Transfer of Training
In the corporate environment, learning with little-to-no prospect of on-the-job application has little value. When it comes to training strategy, it is the transfer of training that really counts. The transfer of training also fits nicely with how to better motivate  employees to learn – the possibility of usefulness in the immediate future to make things that matter personally and professionally easier, faster, or better.

Training Content Needs Training Context
In other words, to better motivate  employees to learn, training content (the what and the how) needs relevant training context (the why).  We need to provide a reason for learners, their bosses, and the business as a whole to care about why we ask them to put in the time and effort to learn new skills and behaviors. Learning takes time and even simple behavior change is not easy.

Three Questions You Should Answer
To better motivate  employees to learn, there has to be a clear “what’s in it for them” rationale.  Why is the learning important for:

1. Their personal success now and in the future?
2. The short- and long-term goals of their team?
3. The company as a whole?

If training participants (and their bosses) don’t understand how the learning will directly benefit them, the proverbial carrot has little allure.  Once employees understand and accept the value of the training, you can add other rewards and recognition to reinforce their successful completion of the program and application of skills on the job.

How You Will Know You Are Headed in the Right Direction
The goal is for:

• Your employees to be self-motivated to learn because it is in their personal and professional best interests to enhance their skills, knowledge, and on-the-job performance.
• Their boss and the company as a whole to be self-motivated to reinforce and support the learning because it is in their personal best interests and in the best interests of the organization for their employees to improve their performance.

The Bottom Line
For training to matter, it must be highly relevant to the target audience, their bosses and executive leadership compared to the other priorities on their plate.  Is your training relevant enough?

To learn more about creating meaningful training with impact, download How to Increase the Adoption & Impact of Training