Current status of employee engagement
What we’ve had for years! When we thought things had returned to normal after the global pandemic, and everything we did to shake up our business, a generation of AI has appeared and everything has changed again. The old sage says that the only constant is change, but for me it feels more unpredictable than it is, it’s not only constant, it’s more unpredictable every day.
Meanwhile, our people are feeling nervous. Only 11% are ready to “better in uncertain environments whilst maximizing new opportunities.” [1] And with two-fifths of employees’ existing skill sets on track to become transformed or outdated over the next five years, they face great pressure to stay up to date. [2]
They have made that tension and pressure work, showing as a record low record of employee engagement: Abysmal 21%. The damage increases. Gallup estimates the collective cost of employee release into the global economy at an eye-opening of $438 billion. [3]
As leaders of L&D, we participated in the flux and uncertainty of a whole new era, but also participated in the opportunity. How can we help our people grow into adaptive, innovative, and resilient employees?
Good news: Research shows that when workplaces prioritize continuous learning and build and maintain a learning culture within their organization, we are on the path to success. [4]
There are several strategies to do exactly that.
Improve employee engagement: Build a culture of learning from top to bottom
Send a strong message to team members when organizations prioritize continuous learning. We are investing in you and your future.
Providing professional development opportunities is an employee retention strategy, and investment is also strongly linked to increased employee engagement and improved performance. [4]
However, a true learning culture requires a fundamental change in perspective. Instead of focusing on what leadership and management want employees to know, they need to focus instead on what learners actually want and know to do their job effectively. In short, it needs to go from telling to help.
To create a learning culture that will thrive from the top down, leaders must be published about their learning journey. Looking at executives and managers who are actively involved in professional development, it shows that learning is a core value of an organization.
Furthermore, creating clear connections between learning pathways and promotional opportunities reinforce the message that growth and development are essential to career progression. This approach ensures that the entire organization, from new hires to C-suites, is engaged in a cycle of continuous improvement.
Think outside the module: Employee engagement through work flow learning
The culture of learning does not require expensive platforms or flashy features. Respecting employees as learners is about empathetic design. It is also about realizing that learning is not limited to formal training modules, but is integrated into the daily work flow.
Here’s how an L&D reader thinks outside the module:
Experiential Learning and Stretch Assignments – Provides employees with the opportunity to apply new skills to real-world scenarios, or accepts “stretch” assignments that push them beyond current capabilities. Also, think about how employees can create employment AIDS and other tools that will help their teammates benefit from what they have learned from the challenges. Mentoring and Coaching – Establish formal or informal mentoring and coaching programs that allow employees to learn from the experiences and wisdom of their peers. Don’t be afraid to let them self-control their engagement. Think of it as small for a big impact. It encourages employees to develop specialized and niche specialties that will lead to their work, and to build personal brands, such as “lunch and learning” opportunities and blog posts. Look for opportunities for them to act like experts on internal subjects. Reflection and Sharing – One thing is needed to help employees move from passively experiencing new things to integrate new information and skills. Give learners space and time to reflect on and share what they are learning. Congratulations if your organization is an organization where employees can safely share both struggle and success! That psychological safety is clearly an indicator that you have a learning culture.
Ask, don’t assume: Hire employees with “stay” and empathy interviews
In general, employees want to do good work in the workplace. They feel involved with their managers and teams, want to perform productively and efficiently and grow into a more advanced role. And they are better than anyone and know what obstacles and challenges you will encounter. The easiest way to understand their problems is to simply ask them (wait for it!).
Borrowing strategies from design thinking and conducting empathy interviews is one of the best ways to learn about these problems. These open-ended conversations involve asking questions and then listening.
These conversations need to be a daily part of the employee engagement toolkit and are an important part of both the L&D and the talent management function.
L&D’s perspective
Before designing a new learning program, your team should ask members of the target learner audience what they already know, what they struggle with, and the confidence they feel they are approaching a variety of work-related decisions, tasks and conversations.
How many learners should I interview? You might be surprised. If you can talk to two or three that represent each segment of the learning population, you will probably learn a lot of things you need to know. If you start by making assumptions about their needs, you will definitely know.
Human resource management perspective
Well beyond the first 90 days, managers need to conduct regular “stay interviews” with employees to understand what they value, what is involved (or less involved), and the potential concerns they face in their role. These regular conversations are great moments that align business needs with employees’ desire for future success. Looking at your current job assignment as a valuable step towards your own hopes and dreams will definitely change your engagement dial.
And these conversations naturally reveal the learning programmes employees want most. AI training is a major need in many organizations and is a way to connect employee interests to internal skills needs.
They also reveal their frustration. If people feel that they are stagnant in an outdated process or system, or are being assessed by their teammates, these interviews can help managers to free themselves and address concerns long before they eventually leave the organization.
Listening to the needs of employees and then acting on them will send you a powerful message they see, are heard and cherished. Employees who participate in improving our processes, culture and professional development are activities, engaged and committed employees.
TL;DR: Do not save these conversations for EXIT interviews.
Attract employees as adults or hand over control
Another strategy to develop a culture of learning is to remember your audience. They are adult professionals, and therefore they want to exercise some measure of control over their lives and learning.
Ask yourself when developing learning programs that address skills in demand.
Can you design this learning and skill journey so that learners can choose their entrance? The order in which they consume content? Can learners be able to test from a specific section they already know? How can you provide the learners with the right amount of structure and freedom? For example, what if you proposed a path to learning or skill in a subject to guidance to learners, but you left the freedom to choose a region of focus?
I often hear questions from well-intentioned clients.
answer? “no!”
Requiring experienced learners to rehash content they have already mastered is actually paradoxically effective. This phenomenon is called the reversal effect of expertise. If anyone already knows the content, let them test it. Don’t waste their time.
Employees will not join our organization as a blank slate. Recognizing the skills and experience they already bring to the table shows our respect for them as experts, people and partners to fulfill the future of their work.
Transform it: Maintain a culture of learning over the long term
In a true culture of learning, learning and skill journeys are not one event. That business value lies in how employees change their performance, behavior and ultimately outcomes. And that value to employees is related to their daily work, roles, and wiifms (i.e., “What’s in there for me?”).
Here are some ways to maintain and increase the value of your learning program.
•Create a community of practice. It provides a place where program graduates can come with their peers to share knowledge, seek support and exchange resources.
The wrong way to do this: a scary college style chat thread.
Correct way: Place chat threads where employees are already going, like a dedicated slack channel. And don’t assign topics to write about them. They want to share what they know from their experiences and ask questions about the real challenges they are experiencing (see Hiring Employees as Adults).
• Ask learners to create their own artifacts. As a capstone activity, you can apply new skills to employees to create actionable tools, processes, or workflows.
One of the most interesting projects I have witnessed is a project in which learners work in teams to create job assistance that will be shared with the next cohort. Learners loved to create something for their colleagues, and an upward cohort of employees was grateful to have this resource at the beginning of their learning journey. Not only did it help them learn, it also helped them feel connected to the larger community of practice.
Long-term employee engagement in the Flux world
We have begun looking at the unique historic moments we share: periods of constant business, economic, political, social and technological change. Meanwhile, our organization and work demand us more resilience, adaptability and agility than ever before.
As leaders at L&D, we are fully set up to build a learning culture tailored to the talent needs of the organization and the aspirations of people. In doing so, employees can be invited to partners in organisational growth and preparation for the future, increasing engagement, commitment and connection.
The Sweetrush team has been co-creational training to promote employee engagement and achieve concrete results since 2001. Share your vision of building a long-term, resilient, engaged and committed workforce.
References:
[1] No workforce ready for the future can be found, they are made by investing in people
[2] Future Jobs Report 2025
[3] World workplace status
[4] Workplace Learning Report 2025
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