Figuring out what motivates employees to learn is a constant puzzle for learning and development (L&D) pros. But LinkedIn’s latest Workplace Learning Report sheds new light on the challenge. If you connect learning to career growth, you will give employees exactly what they want at this moment — a way to advance their careers.
This is especially important at a time when everyone is still riding the wave of economic and talent disruption. Organizations need to engage and retain employees and help them build new skills. Career development provides a consistent and reliable reason for employees to care about, remember, and apply the new skills they’re learning.
Here’s a look at what the latest data reveals about why employees want to learn and how L&D can stoke that fire.
Learning is a means to an end — career growth
In her course “How to Motivate Yourself to Do What’s Most Important,” LinkedIn Learning instructor Dorie Clark says that if people are feeling unmotivated, they need to ask themselves: Why do I want to accomplish something? Why does it matter? When you get in touch with your personal purpose and the reasons your goal matters, it can help you move the ball forward, she says.
That same approach applies to L&D teams seeking ways to motivate employees to engage in learning. Inspiring action starts with understanding the big-picture “why.” And according to data from this year’s Workplace Learning Report, the “why” is connected to career growth. Employees’ top three reasons to learn are:
- If it helps them stay up to date in their field;
- If it is personalized specifically for their interests and career goals; and
- If it helps them get another job internally, get promoted, or get closer to reaching their career goals.
Employees aren’t alone in caring about their career growth. The report also showed that the number one reason people managers recommend learning opportunities is to help their direct reports grow in their careers.
With employees and managers on the same page, L&D teams are well positioned to deliver on complementary goals: to support employee success through skill-building programs and career development, while also helping the organization build skills for the future.
How one employee upskilled his way to promotion
As L&D teams expand their skill-building programs, especially around digital upskilling, employees are taking advantage of the new learning opportunities. That was the case for Tim Lyons, who works at location intelligence and aerial imagery firm Nearmap. Learning offered him a direct path to pursue his aspirations of joining the company’s Solutions Engineering team.
“After being a year removed from an undergraduate degree in Geography and GIS, I needed to revisit, sharpen, and expand my skills and knowledge base,” Tim says.
LinkedIn Learning courses helped him bridge the gap between technical knowledge and hands-on experience for software like AutoCAD Civil 3D and Infraworks. The online courses took him step-by-step through the software’s interface and core functions, and helped him create a final project from start to finish.
“The courses enabled me to not only address the gaps in my abilities, but also fill those gaps with industry-relevant knowledge and skill sets which I use everyday in this new role,” Tim says.
Since being promoted to the Solutions Engineering team, he continues to take courses for both educational purposes and practical application. “Whether that’s increasing my Python education, working with APIs and REST endpoints, or utilizing Nearmap’s content in creative ways previously learned in a LinkedIn Learning course, I am confident and able to present on customer demos showcasing our product’s value and full potential,” he says. No matter what department he works in or career he pursues, he sees these skill-building opportunities as an asset on his career roadmap.
Internal mobility — where learning and career growth converge
Today, career growth isn’t only about moving up; it’s also about moving across the organization to pursue new opportunities. That’s why so many organizations succeeding at building long-term career-development programs are increasingly focused on internal mobility programs — giving employees access to on-the-job opportunities to learn and grow so they can move into new roles within the organization.
“As people are leaving jobs in record numbers, companies must look at new ways to provide employees with professional development opportunities so they consider staying longer within an organization,” writes Teuila Hanson, LinkedIn’s chief people officer. “This includes fostering internal career transitions and skill-building to help retain employees who may be itching for a fresh start.”
Internal mobility represents the sweet spot where learning and career growth come together to fuel both employee engagement and retention. Companies that excel at internal mobility are able to retain employees for an average of 5.4 years — nearly twice as long as companies that struggle with it.
“Over time,” predicts Amy Schultz, who leads global recruiting at Canva, “we’re going to be less focused on job titles and moves up and more focused on simply moving. Work is going to be more like a rock-climbing wall than a ladder.”
Motivate employees to learn, starting with these strategies
Whether you’re scaling skill-building efforts or establishing a more formal internal mobility program, follow these best practices to move forward quickly and with confidence.
1. Partner with your HR colleagues
Seventy-four percent of learning leaders agree that L&D has become more cross-functional over the last year. And as skill-building programs expand, those relationships will become even more important. Consider new ways to team up across the organization, including supporting talent acquisition on skills-based hiring, working with recruiting to assess what skills you can build versus “buy,” and partnering with people analytics to measure the impact of learning programs.
2. Foster a receptive culture.
As Bruce M. Anderson writes in Why Internal Mobility Needs to Be a Key Part of Your Talent Strategy, “If talent is seen as something to be hoarded rather than developed, a company will have a hard time retaining its top employees over the long term.” In order for internal mobility programs to flourish, he writes, leadership must model a culture where employees are encouraged to look internally for new opportunities, and where managers are rewarded for helping team members learn new skills and land new jobs elsewhere in the organization.
3. Make communication a priority.
As discussed in Why Internal Mobility Needs to Be a Key Part of Your Talent Strategy, be sure to build clear and consistent guidelines for how employees move into full-time roles as well as short-term opportunities like gigs or stretch assignments. And communicate with those internal candidates as often as you would with external candidates.
Final thought: L&D can be the spark
So much has changed in the last few years, with people rethinking what matters most to them and how their personal and work lives connect and coexist in a meaningful way. It’s in understanding and acknowledging these motivations that L&D can offer learning opportunities that not only meet someone’s professional needs, but also speak to their personal interests.
Upskilling represents the opportunity for everyone to realize their fullest potential. When L&D pros motivate people to own their own professional development, they empower them to achieve their best selves.
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