Boosting the learning culture in your organization? Start with quarterly themes!

Developing yourself ... where to start? Many employees have no idea. As a result, their development is left behind.

By focusing on a "learning theme" within your organization every quarter, you can motivate employees to put attention into different learning topics. We are happy to share some inspiration for setting up such a quarterly theme and how you can translate it into your own online learning platform.

What exactly is a quarterly theme?

The purpose of a quarterly theme is to drive employee development. This theme is worked on quarterly organization-wide. Each time a new topic is chosen based on the needs of the organization and employees. So these needs must be well probed. In this way, when the quarterly theme is opened, you can also properly substantiate the topic. During the quarter, all kinds of online and offline learning activities are organized around this theme. In this way, you also increase the transfer of what has been learned to work practice. Examples of themes can be: Collaboration, Vitality, Communication, Sustainability, et cetera.

How to organize the quarterly theme

Have several colleagues organize each quarterly theme. It is helpful if one HR or Learning & Development employee remains a permanent part of the organization behind the quarterly theme. In addition to this, you can, for example, have two or three employees from other teams join in. They pass their spot on to other colleagues in the next quarterly theme. In this way, you ensure that all employees have the opportunity to participate in the themes. And by always involving people from different departments, you have different innovative perspectives each quarter that you can use in the setup. This keeps it fun for all your employees.

Activities

During the quarter, make sure you have a good mix of online and offline activities, as well as individual and team assignments. That way you have the best chance of everyone learning something. The variety keeps it interesting and fun for everyone.

• Online activities: Think in advance about appropriate courses on the online learning platform that fit the theme and put them in a learning line. Try to encourage people to take courses from this online offering by linking a reward to it, for example, or work with earning points for each certificate achieved. Want tips for these learning lines? Then contact your Learning Professional.
• Offline activities: Consider physical workshops. Involve colleagues in this and give them room to organize something themselves as well. This is a great way to share in-house knowledge. Place these activities in the agenda of your online academy. This way people can find all activities of the quarterly theme in one place.
• Teams: Many online courses you do on your own. But it is advisable to encourage collaboration as well. Depending on the theme, you can choose to create teams or have departments do assignments together, such as we-learnings, brainstorming assignments or competition activities. This does a lot for job satisfaction and this way colleagues can stimulate each other well.

TIP: Enthuse employees right from the quarterly opening. Do this, for example, with a fun opening video on the theme. SkillsTown studios can also be used for this purpose.

 

Communication is important

Try to communicate everything clearly already during the quarterly opening. That way, employees know what to expect and you can already enthuse them with the activities that are going to take place. It is also advisable to communicate about the quarterly theme once every two weeks. This way it stays 'top of mind' and you can continue to enthuse your employees. Consider what communication style and form suits your employees. Below are examples of things you can share:

• Number of trainings taken (online and physical)
• Most followed online courses
• Comments from participants on activities
• Intervals of any team assignments
• Reminders for deadlines and registrations for physical events
• Photos for an impression of the atmosphere

Quarter-end

It is important to close the quarterly theme well so that employees can look back on what they thought of it and what they learned. Let people share experiences and reflect. A fun way to do this is using a die. This is often used as a classroom tool. With each number you can roll comes a question. Think of questions like:

• Which assignment did you like best?
• Which assignment did you find difficult?
• If you could change anything, what would you do differently?

Insights from this can be taken into account when organizing the next quarterly theme.

TIP: At the end of each quarter, choose a quarterly topper. This person has contributed to the activities in a special way, such as by organizing something themselves or by active participation. The quarterly topper can win a challenge cup and a gift certificate, for example.

 

Getting started with quarterly themes in your organization?

Do you want to create an active learning culture within your organization? We at SkillsTown are happy to help you set up quarterly themes. We have tips and tools for every phase of the process. Get in touch with your contact at SkillsTown. Are you not a client yet but this seems interesting to you? Don't hesitate and contact contact for the possibilities.