Motivate individuals to invest in their workplace development

The message is clear: employees want to engage in development opportunities. How do organisational leaders create engaging, relevant, and timely learning experiences to meet this need?

Most managers we talk with will tell us that motivating their team can be equal parts challenging and rewarding. Motivating team members to invest in their professional development can be a struggle without the proper tools and processes. However, watching your employees develop new skills and go from strength to strength in their careers can be extremely satisfying.

The Benefits of Professional Development

In many ways, the benefits of professional development are self-explanatory. After all, who doesn’t want the opportunity to develop new skills, learn new things, and progress in their careers (be that lattice or linear)?

Unfortunately, the current state of workplace development tells us a different story. 2021 Statistic by the team at Lorman show Fifty-nine percent of employees say they received no workplace training, and most of their skills were self-taught. In comparison, only 29 percent of employees are “very satisfied” with their current career advancement opportunities. Although this is a worrying trend, it provides an opportunity for organisations with high-quality development programs to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

On the positive employees crave professional development opportunities. Seventy-four percent of people are willing to learn new skills or retrain to remain employable. Plus, 87 percent of millennials believe L&D in the workplace is important. What’s more, 76 percent of employees want opportunities for career growth. The message is clear: employees want professional development opportunities, so it is your job to offer them engaging, relevant, and timely learning.

A robust learning culture doesn’t just benefit employees but includes the whole organisation. For example, 86 percent of millennials would be prevented from leaving their current position if their employer offered better training and development. To exemplify this point, companies that offer professional development opportunities have 34 percent higher retention rates. As such, a strong learning culture can save you a sizable amount in retention, recruitment, and turnover costs.

Further, companies that invest in L&D have a 24 percent higher profit margin than those that spend less on training. Finally, employees who engage in regular development opportunities are 15 percent more engaged.

How to Motivate Your Team to Invest in Their Professional Development?

The benefits of a strong focus on workplace development are hard to ignore. With that in mind, let’s explore the how. The exciting news is that, in many cases, you don’t have to do a lot to motivate your team to invest in their professional development. Usually, they’re already motivated and just need you to provide them with the right opportunities. In fact, 59 percent of employees say they already invest in their own upskilling.

According to DeakinCo, one of the best ways to motivate your team is by aligning learning value and business value. As they explain, “as you define what your organisation wants to achieve, work from a high level to ensure your human resource planning—incorporating employee learning and growth programs—aligns with your strategic goals. By taking this top-down approach, your HR development initiatives will align with your goals, and your entire organizational culture will value employee development and learning.”

Another option is to create a culture of knowledge sharing to motivate employees. Employees exposed to a ‘learning culture’ will benefit from an improved mindset while developing a stronger sense of self-worth, ownership, and accountability. Together, these things can provide the intrinsic drivers that your employees need to complete development tasks.

Other potential methods to motivate your employees to invest in their development include conducting regular performance reviews, incentivising employee development, personalising training programs, offering mentorship opportunities, and fostering a culture of employees actively engaging in career development activities.