How to build a learning culture at your company

Giving your teams access to education is more important than ever, but getting employees to participate in a learning program can be challenging. That’s why it’s important to engage employees by building a culture of learning at your company. 

According to Forbes, companies with strong learning cultures see a higher ROI on their training programs via increased productivity, better retention rates, and more collaborative environments. Despite this, a recent report by Docebo found that just 31% of people believe their organization currently has a culture of learning to a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ extent.  

So, the question becomes: how do you establish a culture of learning? To shed light on this issue, we spoke to some of our customers to find out how they build learning cultures in their businesses. 

Connecting learning and competency 

One way to engage employees in a learning program and establish an effective learning culture is to tie learning directly to performance. This is what ASL Aviation Holdings did in 2022 when they implemented their new learning program, the ASL Learning Academy. 

The ASL Learning Academy “is available for everyone, either to enroll in as a compulsory training school, to self-enroll in other trainings that they might feel are needed, or to just develop and grow and enhance their skills, experience, and knowledge,” said Susana Pires, Group H&S Manager at ASL. 

The program has set a new company-wide standard for learning and development. This new standard is thanks in part to the company’s decision to launch a competency framework called “The ASL Way” in conjunction with their new learning program. Managers use The ASL Way to measure employee development and encourage upskilling through the ASL Learning Academy. 

“More and more people are now using the ASL Learning Academy and moving away from tools such as Excel files or any other internal tool that we used to have, so I'm very proud,” said Susana. “We do get a lot of ‘hearts’ on the trainings, which is good. It means that people are happy.” 

To learn more, check out our article on building a sustainable learning culture.  

Building excitement about learning 

Boring, outdated learning programs can lead to low engagement rates, so Wave Utilities ensures they offer content employees are truly excited about. 

“Before we had Go1, we used to do old-fashioned, back-in-the-dinosaur-days compliance training,” said Mandy Rutherford, L&D Manager at Wave Utilities. “It was very long and boring, and people were just not motivated to do it – even though it was mandatory.” 

Mandy and her team introduced micro-learning through Go1, delivering shorter, more approachable, and more interesting content to her team. By partnering with Go1, Wave Utilities gives employees access to a much wider selection of content, ranging from role-specific training to personal interest learning. Since implementing these changes, Mandy has seen content completion rates jump from 78% to 98% and engagement scores skyrocket from 2 out of 5 to 4.36 out of 5. 

“We are at the forefront of learning,” said Mandy. “It's about people development, and if you get the people development right, then it drives your business forward.” 

Prioritizing employee learning time 

To get the most out of learning programs, employees must have enough time to engage with them. CareerSource Florida has been intentional about prioritizing time for learning, designating Friday afternoons as learning time for all employees. The company has also set learning goals that employees can work toward during their designated learning time. 

“We have a staff-wide goal of completing 24 credits per year within our learning platform,” said Senior Human Resource Manager Rosa Espinal-Perry. “It is also mandatory that all leaders give one hour each month for their direct reports to complete their lessons.” 

Pictured: Senior Human Resource Manager at CareerSource Florida, Rosa Espinal-Perry

Setting aside time for learning has boosted interest and enthusiasm around CareerSource Florida’s training program – and contributed to the company’s learning culture. 

“I have managers coming to me all the time saying that their people have completed all of their training ahead of time and that they’re hungry for more learning content,” said Rosa. “I can truly say that we’ve built a learning culture at CareerSource!” 

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