What is Empowerment in L&D?
When we feel empowered, it’s as though we can accomplish anything. There is no task too difficult, no mound of paperwork too tall, no coffee round too large and no training programme too daunting. When we’re empowered, we feel motivated to push our self-development forward and become the best ‘us’ we can possibly be. Employees shift from having to be closely managed and led to ultimately being self-directed and motivated in their own development.
Creating a culture of empowerment in your organisation takes work, but is well worth the effort. Once you’ve established an empowered workforce that is passionate about achieving goals, smashing targets and powering through training courses, you’ll find it gets easier and easier to move forward. It’s like pushing a barrel up a hillside. It’s tough going; your back aches, your calves burn and you’re out of breath. But once you tip the barrel over the crest of the hill gravity takes over and it begins to move under its own steam. Like with most things in life, hard work pays off.
Here’s why you need a culture of empowerment that will have your employees happy, motivated and determined to push their personal and professional development skyward:
Why You Need a Culture of Empowerment
Culture Determines Impact
When it comes to training and development, the strength of a company’s culture is the biggest predictor of impact. In other words, the more empowered an organisation’s employees are, the more behavioural change is seen and the greater the success of the training programme.
Strong Learning Cultures are Better
– 46% more likely to be strong innovators in their market
– 37% more likely to list employee productivity as a strength
– 34% more likely to get to the market before their competitors
– 18% more likely to currently be a market share leader in one or more of their markets
(Credit: Bersin.com)
Empowerment Helps You to Learn
There’s a positive relationship between empowerment and workplace learning. This means that once employees have completed formal training programmes, they are more likely to successfully continue their learning journeys when back at work. This has the huge benefit of tapping into the 70% of our learning that occurs ‘on the job’ (compared to 20% through observation of others and 10% by formal training). It’s such a massive bonus that it directly relates to…
Empowerment Helps Drive Return on Investment
Securing ROI – return on investment – is an important but often unachievable task of Learning and Development departments. The reason for this is that, generally, most training plans focus on only one area of learning: formal learning (like classroom training, workshops and eLearning units). But as we saw above, employees in empowered learning cultures do make the effort to tap into the 70% of learning that occurs on the job. It enables the learners to continue their learning journeys on their own, in their own time, both on their Learning Management System and in the office, store or out in the field when they get back to work.
There are many more benefits of empowered company cultures, so it’s really something you should think about: here’s how you can start to create an awesome company culture. If you’re interested in finding out just how an empowered company culture helps to secure return on investment on your training spend, click the button below!
