Within 7 months 81% of employees were learning: STL did it this way

Being a 'learning organization' is what everyone wants, right? But between 'wanting' and 'being' such an organization is quite a challenge. Because how do you get all employees so involved and committed that they want to keep developing themselves continuously? We took up this challenge together with Sector Institute Transport and Logistics (STL).

In this article, Eva Visser, HRM advisor at STL, explains how they worked with SkillsTown to activate as many as 81% of their employees within 7 months to further develop with the online academy.

Unlimited online learning

When STL asked participants after a workshop on 21st century skills about their interest in developing further in them, 97% said they wanted to pay more attention to their personal development. In response to that outcome and the importance they attach to sustainable employability, STL launched their own online learning environment. This allows all 150 employees to take online training courses free of charge.

Eva explains: "We have an x amount of our payroll each year that we make available for development. All employees can claim this in consultation with their manager. To this we have very happily added the STL academy. Now that the academy has been made available to everyone, there is something for everyone to take at no cost."

"How nice it is to experience employees referring to the online learning platform themselves!"

Set a good example

If one thing is clear from Eva's story, it is that an online learning environment will only work if management and supervisors believe in and promote it. Eva says: "We have chosen not to make the online courses mandatory, but then you have to make the platform strong as an organization. That is why we have included everyone from middle and top management from the beginning and this ensures that they also carry it. We have also agreed with the managers that they will talk to their employees about the development opportunities in the platform."

Attract positive attention

Since STL chose not to work with commitments to the learning platform at launch, this provides opportunities within the organization to bring the platform to the attention of employees in a different way. As far as Eva is concerned, this cannot be done creatively enough: "From time to time we think up playful actions that lead employees to the academy in a fun way. In doing so, we want to make a link with the online courses in the environment. For example, following the webinar 'smartphone photography,' we came up with a photo contest. Every employee could send in his or her best smartphone photo using the knowledge from this webinar. The best photo received an enlargement from us as a gift."

"We came up with a photo contest as a result of the 'smartphone photography' webinar to drive employees to the academy."

Share experiences

Once the online academy is running a bit and you get the first reactions from employees, you can make good use of these reactions for promotion. Positive experiences in turn motivate others to take a look as well. Ask an employee for a quote and post it on the intranet, record a video of the positive experience and share it in an internal newsletter, or give colleagues space to talk to each other about which module they took last month and what their experience was with it.

Eva explains, "The nice thing is that employees themselves are already referring more and more to the online courses. For example, a colleague from IT posted a message on our intranet. He said that people with questions about the new Windows version should take a look at the online training. How nice it is to experience that employees themselves refer to the online learning platform!"

Use it in your recruitment

The main reason for the online platform is to encourage employee development. In addition, attracting new talents is a nice touch. Eva says: "In order to bring the online learning environment to the attention, it is important that it is well woven into the organization. Not only internally, but also externally. We refer to our own academy everywhere. We do that to employees, but also in our recruitment so that new talents also know about the opportunities for self-development at STL."