What is employee experience?

People experience their employment through their interaction with their colleagues, their work environment s and how they grow and develop. Employee experience is inextricably linked to employee engagement.

In this article, we showcase the importance of emphasising learning and development for creating a positive employee experience. 

Why is learning and development important?

In a recent article, Anna Buber-Farovich, Chief People & Culture Officer at Zip Co says, “People are wanting and expecting to grow and develop and if we do not provide this opportunity, they will quickly be snapped up by a company who does, and we would no doubt see an increase in attrition numbers.”

Learning, when done poorly, can feel dull and pointless to complete. When this happens, employees can feel disengaged from their jobs and have trouble connecting what they’re learning with what they’re doing. Any training they do seems purposeless because it’s not integrated with other elements of their experience.

But when it’s done well, learning can give employees a sense of empowerment and achievement. Learners feel engaged in their work and know exactly how to apply their new skills. Learning is integrated with other facets of their experience: it’s not just a box-ticking exercise, but an opportunity for growth and career development. 

And that’s the power of learning—the opportunity for professional (and personal!) development which generates a feeling of purpose at work. Good L&D can and does meet the expectation of growth and development that people want.

So, how do you improve the employee experience? How do you integrate learning, development and engagement? Read on to find out!

How to improve employee experience

Improving employee experience isn’t just a one-time event. It’s a continuous exercise that requires input from every link in the chain. Previously, we wrote about how to develop a learning culture in your organisation, which is a great place to start. Here, we talk about how these activities impact your employees and improve their engagement at work. 

Checking in with managers

It seems the yearly appraisal is on it’s way out, but how do you actually improve employee experience without it? 

The answer is to regularly organise one-on-one check-ins between managers and staff. This way, the employee can directly engage with management on how they want to develop their skills. They can set goals together, address any bumps that might become problems in the future, and figure out how to get where the employee wants to go. This gives your employees choice in how they progress. This gives them autonomy and freedom, but also allows them to contribute to your organisation in a meaningful way. 

If you have someone in your organisation who has already achieved what other people want to achieve, you can encourage that person to be a mentor and set up a mentorship program to encourage and work with other to impart knowledge skills and confidence.

By regularly talking with your employees about their goals and aspirations, you empower them to take control of their learning and of their careers. This is the key to maintaining an engaged and motivated workforce. Employees who can choose how they contribute to the organisation are fully engaged and motivated employees 

Learning and development

Once employees have their goals locked in, they’re ready to actually undertake all the training they need to skill up. When a lot of people think of L&D, they think of offsite seminars, videoconferences, and other forms of formal training. While formal training has its place for certification and proving competency, it can also inspire feelings of dread in employees.

But formal learning isn’t the only way for employees to develop new skills. Employees can learn in less traditional ways, like through learning games. Or, they can track informal experiences like on the job training, watching a video, or having a chat with a mentor. All of these experiences can be tracked with an xAPI Learning Records Store, a flexible solution to tracking any kind of learning your learners might experience.

Once they’ve skilled up, learners can share their newfound knowledge with others, which is the next step in the cycle...

Sharing knowledge

At every point in a person’s journey at work, they should have the opportunity to ask questions and share their knowledge. From the subject matter expert (SME) to the new starter, everyone has things to say that can enrich the learning culture at your organisation. 

We know that teaching other people something you’ve learned reinforces that knowledge better than restudying it. Why not apply this approach in the workplace as well?

Your subject matter experts want to share their knowledge. It’s empowering to help others and gives them a sense of contribution and impact. But sharing their knowledge with others can also be an important way for them to reinforce their own learning, so everyone benefits. 

There are a bunch of ways SMEs can spread what they know. But the important part is that they share it in such a way that other people interested in what they have to say digest it. Your SMEs can become a mentor for others interested in the same area, and so the cycle continues.  

Totara Talent Experience Platform

Learn, share, and grow all on one integrated system with the Totara Talent Experience Platform (TXP). The Totara TXP has three components: Learn, Engage, and Perform, which are seamlessly integrated to bring you the best user experience. 

• Use Totara Perform to set goals, organise check-ins and appraisals, and develop your team.
• Use Totara Learn for formal training, continuing professional development, and certification. 
• Use Totara Engage to share knowledge in the form of multimedia resources, playlists, and collaborative workspaces. 

Empower your learners to take control of their development and get in touch with us for a demo today.