Studies show that investment in continuing education for business owners and employees increases workplace happiness, improves retention levels, and increases workplace engagement. Additionally, business owners, CEOs, managers, operators, and team members must all contribute to an ever-changing business landscape. How will they and you keep iterating and bringing new ideas to the table if you aren’t continuously learning?
As our CEO, Adi Klevit, performs more and more interviews with successful entrepreneurs, one theme remains consistent. That is, entrepreneurs and business owners are continuously learning and building upon that knowledge to create greater success in their companies.
In this article, we will share how you can build a system to continue your education and to encourage employees to learn and grow, thereby bringing their best ideas to your company.
How to Build a System for Continuing Education
1. Make education and professional growth a priority.
To get started, you must make education and professional growth a priority for yourself. For many business owners, this means reading business books, attending educational webinars, taking online courses, going to conference breakout sessions, and more. Prioritizing your growth and continued education keep the importance of education for the whole team at top of mind.
2. Include educational time in the work schedule.
Encouraging your team to set aside time to read the latest literature about their jobs, take classes, and attend webinars is a way to show them that you see value in their continued education. Additionally, you can send employees to conferences and ensure they attend the most informative breakout sessions. Building a culture of continued learning and growth will help your employees understand your values and continue to look for learning opportunities.
3. Have regular meetings where you and your employees can share information.
Sharing knowledge and new ideas is a leap toward active collaboration. Encourage this by setting up individual team meetings and even cross-team meetings where members can present what they’ve learned, discuss ideas, and collaborate to improve the company. You can also create a weekly or monthly staff meeting where you share what you have learned and how that information will affect the company. Making the meetings collaborative will allow new stars to shine within your organization and can spur fantastic ideas for improvements/new developments.
4. Reward continued education and idea generation.
Ensure that continued education and bringing new ideas to the table are considered during the annual review. Rewarding the work you want done will incentivize your team to produce more and better work.
Additionally, as you continue to learn and grow, reward yourself. You may have your own education-related bonus system within the business. Or you could add an extra vacation day or two to celebrate a new idea that worked when implemented.
5. Hire internally.
Do you want to keep the most knowledgeable employees on your staff? Hire internally and pay those staff the rate you would have paid someone if you hired externally. Continued staff education benefits your business by inspiring new ideas, building best practices, and making your team better at their jobs. Keep those team members around by considering internal hires.
6. Document what you’ve learned (and encourage employees to do so).
If you learn something that shifts the company’s direction, inspires a new product, or increases profitability, you will want to remember what that thing is, right? Of course you do! And, if an employee learns something that inspires a brilliant suggestion or strategy change, you also want to remember that information.
Build documentation around any pivots and new knowledge gleaned from continued education. Document not only the changes but also why they were made and where that information was gathered. You may want your employees to continue to learn from those sources, or you might find it valuable for new hires to take the webinar or read the book that inspired the change.
Creating a system for continuing education within your business is both fun and challenging. Find out how the system building and knowledge transfer experts at Business Success Consulting Group can help!
Click here to schedule your free initial consultation.
