Everyday learning

June 12, 2009

As we all know, budgets for things like benefits, recruitment and training are currently a lot smaller than this time last year in many companies, so HR professionals are having to be more strategic and clever with the cash they have in order to keep their organisations healthy during the recession and prepared for when it ends. Part of this is finding low or no cost alternatives to the things they used to have budget to spend on.

In learning and development, there are so many different ways in which employees can develop their skills and knowledge that don’t necessarily require an external trainer or training session. Work shadowing and buddy systems can prove more successful in many cases, because the learner is involved in a real life situation and can observe the other employee’s skills in action.

I know a newly qualified doctor who took advantage of the opportunity to work in a hospital in a developing African country on a placement scheme. Apart from the obvious benefits to the doctor in developing his newly gained skills in a very different situation to the UK hospitals, he described how the doctors in the African hospital benefitted from his placement, through the opportunity to learn the latest medical developments and techniques from someone who has just finished learning it all. Simply working alongside people from different experiential backgrounds and with different skill sets can be the most effective way to develop a range of abilities within the job role.

This philosophy is used in many large organisations; for example Google, which has a programme called ‘ambassadors’ – in which employees can swap jobs with someone in another area of the world. These kinds of secondments are invaluable for the skill and career development of the individual, but also ensures that good talent and new ideas are moved around the company, promoting more opportunities for innovation and organisational development.

What kind of alternative learning opportunities do your employees have, and how does it benefit them and the company?

Posted by hrgirl | Filed Under Learning and Development 

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