No matter what your business, we are all transacting and competing in a knowledge based economy. Companies with employees that can quickly learn new skills and practices, adapt to change and continuously grow will succeed in the future. Those that don't will not be able to compete in the global marketplace. Learning is a critical success factor for your business.
Thanks to the wisdom of some of our TAB members, here are some keys to creating a learning, agile, and high performing workforce.
- Hire good people who are curious, and have the right behaviors, values and attributes
- Communicate expectations, communicate expectations, communicate expectations
- Reward and recognize good performance
- Leverage technology to document your processes for new employees and to refresh everyone when needed
- Create forums for employees to help each other
- Mind your mindset: Learning is an investment in your most precious capital, not an expense.
- Make development a robust process in your organization
And here are some favorite resources for keeping it low cost:
- www.kantola.com for skills training in areas like sales, customer service, management and technology
- Your local Small Business Development Center
- www.TED.com for "riveting talks by remarkable people"
- Get your employees to document your processes using tools like MS OneNote, video, or automated ppt software
- Use "drip marketing" concepts and tactics to onboard employees
- Podcasts, YouTube, Blogs and all the other free content on the web
What resources have you found valuable? Please post them in comments for others.
One last word of wisdom... all the training and learning activities in the world wont make a bit of difference if your employees aren't aligned with your goals and vision.... but that's a topic for another blog!
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