Arjen Banach: "Learning is the only way to keep job satisfaction"

In many organizations, "learning" is high on the agenda. But as soon as things get busy, those learning ambitions fade into the background. Then the deadline wins out over continued development. And that is exactly where it goes wrong, argues organizational neurologist Arjen Banach. "We are sometimes so caught up in the delusion of the day that we fail to recognize learning moments. And when we do see them, we often don't name them."

In this series, SkillsTown speaks with innovators in the field of learning and development. How do you make talent development tangible? How do you create a culture where people continue to grow? And what does that require from leaders, HR, rituals and our language? In this episode, we speak with Arjen Banach, speaker, author and former Chief Happiness Officer.

Being a good employer requires conviction

"Being a good employer is far from a given," Banach begins somewhat pessimistically. "What you often see now is that organizations only take action when things get sticky, for example because they are short of people. Then it suddenly becomes, 'I have to become attractive.' But if that's your motivation, you simply won't keep it up. Being a good employer must come from conviction: people spend five days a week with us, then it is ónly our responsibility to take good care of them."

One of the greatest needs of knowledge workers is to keep developing. There's a lot of job satisfaction in that. But often there is only one path: you do your job well, excel, and then you become a manager. While that's a totally different line of work. "If you want to do well as an organization, you have to make sure that people can grow across the board, in the expert role of their profession. That they can be promoted and get recognition, also in terms of salary. But that is now only really well organized in very few places."

Get rid of the jargon

Banach was Holland's first Chief Happiness Officer. The title earned him a lot of media attention. Yet he hardly ever speaks of work happiness as a goal anymore. "If you call something 'happiness at work,' some people immediately drop out. They get an itch and the hairs on the back of their neck stand up. Then you miss the mark. While it is about something very essential: being allowed to do work in a way that suits you and makes you happy."

A term like "sustainable employability"? Banach grins: "Just go up to an employee at the end of the day and ask: were you a bit sustainably employable today? Then someone will look at you like you said something crazy. I myself prefer: did you get energy from what you did today? That's where job satisfaction begins."

"The further I get in my profession, the more I see how decisive language is, especially in change processes," says Banach. "If we don't use the right words, you're not going to organize it well either." He says the same is true of learning: a topic that is often on the agenda, but rarely trickles down to the way people work and collaborate.

Read the entire interview with Arjen here