Anita Whitelum, National Manager of HealthStaff Ed, shares her insights on the benefits of using online CPD training for healthcare staff.  

Healthcare provider learning programs are about delivering education that contributes to safe, quality care that is consistent, and within a framework that is transparent and effective. 

The demand to give greater access to quality Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is ever-increasing and providers are looking to solutions that will complement their internal program. 

This is where eLearning comes in. Like most technologies, eLearning has come a long way in the past decade. Most eLearning has moved on from uploading word documents to the internet – we have the means to create interactive, engaging, learner focussed material that can open up thousands of opportunities to teach – and for an individual to learn. And it’s now universally accepted that people learn in different ways and via a variety of mediums.

Blending your learning strategy to include online CPD has a number of great benefits:

It allows your education team to focus on the training that is highly individualised to your facility.

It’s highly cost-effective, providing a great return on investment.

It provides access 24/7 meaning shift workers never miss out.

It’s a highly effective way of delivering a large portion of mandatory training.

It gives people ownership over their training and keeps them constantly engaged.  

We’ve put together 5 suggestions for packages that will assist in meeting mandatory learning needs as well as provide great opportunities to your people to consolidate and advance their knowledge. 

Personal protective equipment (CPD: 1 hour)

Managing blood and body fluid spills (CPD: 2 hours)

Reducing injuries from sharps (CPD: 1.5 hours)

Predicting, preventing, and managing violence (CPD: 2.5 hours)

Managing acute severe behavioural disturbances (CPD: 2 hours)

Post violent incident response (CPD: 1.5 hours)

Communicating for safety: Effective clinical handover (CPD: 2.5 hours)

Recognising and responding to acute deterioration in adult patients (CPD: 2.5 hours)

Falls prevention in older adults (CPD: 3 hours)

Pressure injury and ulcers - Prevention and early identification of skin damage (CPD: 2.3 hours)

Pressure injury and ulcers - Staging and treatment (CPD: 2.75 hours)

Providing a safe environment for children and young people

Working with children: Identifying and responding to vulnerable children (CPD: 3 hours)

Working with vulnerable children: Mandatory reporting (jurisdictional based) (CPD: 1 hour)

Vulnerable young people and the age of consent (CPD: 1.75 hours)

Identifying and responding to elder abuse (CPD: 3.2 hours)

Elder abuse - Reporting elder abuse in aged care (CPD: 1.25 hours)

In short, the need for healthcare providers to give access to quality CPD is only going to grow and getting on the front foot with a strategy that blends online CPD with your in house program is a win/win - for your people, they get the best of both worlds - and for you - you get to focus your attention on the really important facility-based training and leave the rest to a quality online provider. 

Setting the benchmark for online CPD in Australia, HealthStaffEd provides the best in current, relevant, interactive learning providing knowledge where and when it's needed.

Get started with HealthStaffEd training content!

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

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Help your healthcare team hit their mandatory training and CPD  requirements

In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, ensuring that your employees stay mentally healthy is now a top priority. Nobody will have experienced a crisis on this scale before, and for some team members, the pandemic may have severely affected their family or close friends. 

With the majority of staff now working from home, it's important to consider how working remotely can impact an employee's mental health. Here, we have some advice for managers and leaders to help you offer the right support for your teams during this time. 

A sense of belonging is integral to being human. Social distancing measures have severely limited our ability to connect with others.

In modern life, we form many different tribes. Our families, sports teams, book clubs - these are all groups we can belong to. They help us connect to something greater than ourselves.

Our work teams are also a kind of tribe. Although there are ways to remain socially connected with colleagues online, working remotely undoubtedly makes this harder. 

In research conducted by Buffer in 2019 on the state of remote work, participants noted that their biggest struggle is with maintaining wellbeing. 22 percent found it challenging to switch off after work, 19 percent feel isolated, and eight percent can’t stay motivated.

There is a risk that employees working outside the office can become socially isolated. Ideally, companies would carefully design their remote work programs. Under the current circumstances, we don’t have the luxury of time to plan in this way, but there are steps we can take to improve the experience for employees. 

Social isolation is also proven to have adverse effects on both mental and physical well being, although why this happens is not yet fully understood. 

In light of the impact working remotely could have on employees, I have put together some tips on managing mental wellbeing. 

1. Accept that there will be a period of adjustment

Getting used to the new social distancing measures in place across the world will be challenging. There will be a period of adjustment for everybody. The uncertainty around how long the rules will need to be in place adds another layer of difficulty. 

All we can do is accept this new situation as best we can, and work with what we have. 

Accept that your colleagues will take time to get used to it. They might also know people who have been severely affected.

Even if you are busy, staying connected socially is essential. When you are in the same space in the office environment, informal conversation and socialising happen incidentally. Working online is different. Most interaction is organized, and often formal. 

While this saves time to focus on work, we do lose something if we don’t allow some time for chats about the weekend or life in general.  These kinds of conversations are important for team morale, and mental health. 

3. Set boundaries between work and home 

Now that we are all spending the majority of the day at home, we need to set clear boundaries between work and downtime. Having a designated space can help with this, and if possible, only use this space for work. 

When you have finished for the day, leave the room or space, and don’t return to it until you start to work the next day.  This approach might take some discipline to begin with, but it can help with switching off from the workday.

Some people will find it more difficult than others to adjust to social isolation. People need varying levels of social interaction.

Extroverted team members will find the adjustment to working alone the most challenging. They thrive on being around other people and may find it difficult to motivate themselves in isolation. 

Perhaps check in with more extroverted team members more often, and do your best to look after each other. 

It is all too easy at the moment to become overly focused on the negative. Our built-in negativity bias helps us to stay safe from danger, but it can lead to anxiety and depression when left unmonitored. 

Being overly positive and ignoring the danger isn’t helpful, but try to keep negative thoughts in check and detach from them. 

Limiting the amount of time you spend consuming the news is an effective way to do this. Some news is crucial, but there is a lot of it out there, so focus on the snippets of information you need from reputable sources. This will help to keep things in perspective and maintain a more balanced mindset.

We are currently experiencing a significant challenge as a global community. Now, more than ever, we need to check in with our thoughts and feelings and do our best to manage them. 

For you, this might mean going for a walk to reflect, listening to music, meditating, or journaling. Whatever it is that you do to stay mentally healthy, take the time to do it, and take care of yourself. 

Checking in is particularly important if you suffer from mild to moderate anxiety or depression, or if you have in the past. For more support, the Australian not-for-profit Beyond Blue offers advice and services to those needing additional support with their mental health. 

Sophia is a freelance writer who specialises in thought leadership, opinion pieces and content creation for learning publications. Her work focuses on the latest research in learning theory and practice. She regularly contributes articles on workplace learning and personal development to the Go1 blog. You can connect with her on LinkedIn. 

Managing mental wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic - Go1

How to manage employees’ mental wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic

In a relatively short space of time, the outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in significant changes to the working day for many people. Nobody is sure when, or if the workplace will return to what it was. 

In these uncertain times, we all have to learn new ways of operating at work. Those already accustomed to working from home will have techniques for remaining engaged. For those new to the process, it will be a challenging adjustment. 

Here, we outline the ways you can lead your team through the transition, helping them to stay socially connected.

Working with others has many benefits. We can collaborate more efficiently, connect with others, and their intentions are more apparent.

According to research, 93% of communication occurs nonverbally, through body language and tone of voice. Only seven percent of understanding is received through words. This data shows how much we are missing out on when using email and messaging platforms instead of talking to each other face-to-face. 

Social interaction is also essential for learning. According to the 70:20:10 model of workplace learning, 20 percent of what we learn happens when we engage with others. 

While employees can use instant messaging platforms to converse, it is crucial to be aware that much of what is said is lost, and misunderstandings could happen quickly without talking things through on a call. 

There are also plenty of ways to interact socially, but employees may not be accustomed to having informal chats or asking each other questions when working from home. It is essential to encourage your colleagues to keep talking to each other, and to interact as frequently as possible. 

Social isolation can also affect both mental and physical well being, although it is not yet understood why. 

Suggestions for connecting with team members

There are steps we can take to mitigate the adverse effects of fewer social interactions. I have outlined them below to help your team stay connected and to boost morale.

While many people adjust to their new work situation, team leaders need to check in regularly. Equally, you'll need to get the balance right and give employees enough space to complete their projects.

Some team members will need more instruction than others. Certain people will be happy to create their projects and self-initiate. Others will need a little more guidance, especially if they are young or in a more junior role. 

Some people are also more extroverted than others. These team members will most likely find the adjustment to working alone the most challenging.  Extroverts thrive on being around other people and may find it difficult to motivate themselves in isolation. 

2. Encourage your colleagues to have informal catch-ups

Even if you are busy, it is critical to keep up team morale. In the office environment, informal conversation and socializing happen incidentally, because you are in the same physical space. When working online, most interaction is organized and often formal. 

While this saves time to focus on work, we do lose something if we don’t allow some time for chats about the weekend or life in general.  These kinds of conversations are also essential for team morale and mental health.  

3. Ask those who already work at home for their advice	

In many companies, some employees will already be used to working from home. It could be helpful to chat with these people and ask them how they manage socializing with their colleagues online. They have the experience and could share it with others who aren’t so used to working outside the office. 

If any team members are struggling, you could buddy them up with a seasoned remote worker to ask for advice and help them adjust to the process. 	

While it is relatively easy with modern technology to connect with a team member or a small group of people on a conference call, it can be harder to get the whole team together. Team members might be used to after-work drinks on a Friday night, or regular dinners with colleagues.

In this case, it might be worth putting it to a vote and seeing whether your staff would like to do an end of week call. Using video call software, everyone can dial into the call. Employees who feel comfortable could take it in turns to lead the call. This strategy works well to connect the remote members of the team at Go1!

5. Make an extra effort to interact with people 

When at work in the office, we organically interact with people we sit next to, or people on other teams. We might pop to the kitchen to make a coffee or tea and have a chat with our colleagues.  When working from home, particularly if you live alone, this is unlikely to happen. You might go the whole day without speaking to anybody.

Being social when working remotely requires more effort. You won’t just bump into people, so you need to organize catch up calls, and initiate conversation more than you otherwise might.  

Equally, if you know a colleague who is working from home and living alone, check in with them more regularly or give them a call. Just five minutes of conversation might make a real difference to their day. 

How to keep your colleagues socially connected for extended periods of remote work

'Sticky learning' is a popular new buzzword in workplace training, but the concept is nothing new. When educators teach new knowledge or skills, their aim has always been for participants to be able to retain that knowledge and apply it. 

Presenting content in a way that makes it memorable can be the key to a successful lesson. Armed with the knowledge of the tools designers use to shape the learning experience, those responsible for learning and development can select quality learning content that will have an impact. 

In the 1960s, the ‘learning pyramid’ first appeared in educational research, and remains popular among learning designers and educators. The theory is attributed to the National Training Laboratory, although there are many different versions. Essentially, the pyramid is a guide as to the types of activities that are most effective for memory and retention:

Today, psychologists and neuroscientists argue that the pyramid is oversimplified and that a vast range of variables can affect memory, such as age, what facilitators instruct the subjects to do and a learner’s current knowledge of the lesson content. 

While learning designers and facilitators can take steps to improve retention, the responsibility also lies with the learner. Strategies such as focusing attention, structuring and organizing key points, and visualizing concepts can all help participants to recall important facts.

While the accuracy of the data reported in the learning pyramid is questionable by today's understanding of learning science, there are features those responsible for learning and development can look out for to select learning materials that will be 'sticky'. The following tips will guide you through the process:

Personalizing learning is the difference between content being engaging or boring. Content needs to address an individual’s learning needs as accurately as possible, and advancing technology is helping to make this more achievable.

If learning material targets the individual needs of an employee, they are far more likely to be engaged with the content, and hence more likely to remember it. If they see the knowledge as relevant and useful to their work, they are far more likely to recall it and use it in the future.

2. Look for a single, clear learning objective 

A critical yet often overlooked element of learning design is ensuring that a lesson focuses on one learning objective and sticks to it. When a session includes more than one objective, it lacks clarity and it becomes more challenging for learners to retain the material.

For any lesson to be effective, designers need to set the learning objective out at the beginning, and the learner needs to be made aware of what it is they are focusing on from the outset. 

Look for learning materials that map out learning objectives for each lesson, and make it clear how participants are going to reach that goal. 

Scaffolded learning is structured and supports participants in reaching the desired objective of the lesson. Designers can scaffold knowledge through the inclusion of certain activities or resources. They can design tasks in the session to gradually build towards participants demonstrating their understanding of the final objective. 

Before selecting learning materials for your colleagues, scan over the contents of the lessons. Does each lesson guide participants to help them reach the ultimate learning objective, or do the activities seem muddled and unfocused? 

4. Look for audio-visual, or storytelling elements

Attaching new facts to music or visuals makes it much easier for the brain to recall them. We can remember details from text alone, but audio-visual elements help to cement new facts in memory. 

When learning designers weave in a storytelling element, this is equally effective. Research shows that when teachers incorporate storytelling into learning, they help learners to retain content, no matter what their learning style is.

Uri Hasson from Princeton explains that a story is the only way to activate specific parts of the brain. When hearing a story, the listener automatically turns what they pick up into their version, which forms part of their experience. We are wired to listen to stories as a way of passing on and remembering essential facts, which is why a narrative structure works so well in a learning context.  

5. Encourage employees to develop good learning habits

While a well-designed course that meets an employee’s learning needs will significantly improve retention, learners can also take steps to help with their memory and recall. 

Attention is one of the essential parts of memory. For information to move from the short term memory to the long term memory, participants have to actively engage with that information, ideally in a place free from distractions. 

Organizing new facts can also help the brain with memory. If participants take notes while they complete online courses, or they collect additional resources, encourage them to keep materials on related topics in one place, or find ways of grouping the resources.

Using colors to organize information into groups can also help to jog the memory, and help learners to recall large amounts of information associated with that color.

A one stop shop for all things training, Go1 makes it easy to compare the best training options available, and find the right resources for your professional development, compliance, and business training needs. 

With courses that cover numerous business functions, we help your staff grow into their role by unlocking their potential. Content is at all levels of difficulty and is suitable for any employee, in any department, in any region.

Sophia is a freelance writer who specialises in thought leadership, opinion pieces and content creation for learning publications. Her work focuses on the latest research in learning theory and practice. She regularly contributes articles on workplace learning and professional development to the Go1 blog. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

How to make learning stick: a guide to 'sticky learning' 

In recent times, the rapid development of technology has created an urgent need for invention, new lines of thought, and inquiry.

In this social context, creativity and problem-solving skills are among the most desirable, yet sometimes challenging to develop in the workplace. 

Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt at Google explains that design-thinking helps teams to foster a culture of innovation. It helps to generate and test ideas creatively and effectively. 

He adds that the approach develops an individual’s capacity to innovate by encouraging them to practice a certain mindset. They can then apply these skills to a variety of tasks. 

Organizations and individuals across disciplines are adopting the concept, which is revolutionizing the way teams approach the development of new products, systems, and processes. 

Design thinking has roots in a range of disciplines, and gradually developed through the design of new products, buildings, and machines. The concept is now applied more broadly in response to the need for innovation in our time. 

This broadening of the concept’s applications has been criticized for trivializing the design process, but it is undoubtedly useful in many contexts.

Organizations can use the design thinking cycle as a roadmap for innovation at a team or individual level. The process has almost limitless applications and can help to remove the stumbling block of generating ideas. 

One of the great benefits of the cycle is that it trains people to become solution-focused. The goal of the process is to come up with answers, not create more problems. This mindset can help to boost productivity and positive feedback loops. 

The cycle involves six stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, implement. Each stage encourages different thought processes and helps to build creative momentum:

Design Thinking 101  Neilsen Norman Group

To explain how the process might be used in the workplace, imagine your team is tasked with devising a new social media strategy. You can start by empathizing with different members of your target audience. What do they want to know? What are the pain points in their lives? What problems do they need to solve? 

Then comes the fun part, and your team can brainstorm content ideas together. You would then pick out a few ideas that represent key themes that pop up. After that, you would test run a few posts to see how your audience responds. If these ideas are received well, they could be built into your new strategy. If some don’t work, you could go back to any point in the cycle to find out why and problem solve. 

And the process doesn’t just apply to inherently creative tasks. Perhaps your team needs to come up with a new system to make a process more efficient. Each stage of the design thinking cycle could be applied in this context to ensure that the most effective idea is implemented. 

1. Requires employees to engage in higher-order thinking skills

Higher-order thinking skills, such as innovating, creating, and critical thinking, are now in high demand. This trend will continue as the need to develop new products, ways of working, and technologies increases.

When employees are encouraged to engage with higher-order thinking skills, they require more attention and utilize more brain capacity. As a result, they will be more motivated by the tasks and invested in the outcomes. 

The design thinking process is very active and participatory. When employees work in this way, they have the opportunity to learn experientially, through testing their ideas and learning from mistakes. 

According to the 70:20:10 model for learning and development, 70 percent of learning in the workplace is experiential — learning through practice and experience, followed by reflection, critical analysis, and application.  

3. Strategies and ideas can come from anyone

A generally held view is that strategy is the sole responsibility of those at the top of an organization. Those in leadership set the strategic direction of the company and steer the team in that general direction.  

While executives do need to take charge and make final decisions about which way to head, this approach can lead to missing the ideas of those working at other levels of the organization. Employees are generally an untapped resource of creativity and innovation - implementing the design thinking cycle can help to uncover this.

When employees are encouraged to use higher-order thinking skills such as creativity, this automatically boosts engagement and motivation to complete a task. 

Researchers have also linked better engagement in workplace tasks to the retention of staff. Staff retention is a problem across organizations in the modern workplace and can have a direct impact on productivity.

If team members are using the design cycle to come up with new ideas, processes, and concepts for their organization, they will invariably hit stumbling blocks along the way. Perhaps they aren’t confident in collecting reliable data to develop an understanding of customers. Maybe low self-confidence holds them back from contributing ideas to a brainstorming session.

Wherever the problems arise, they provide employees with an opportunity for learning and professional development. If an employee wants to learn more about collecting data, she could enrol in an introductory course. If he has an issue with self-confidence, an online course might help to reframe his thinking.

A one-stop shop for all things training, Go1 makes it easy to compare the best training options available and find the right resources for your professional development, compliance, and business training needs. 

Help your employees to innovate using the design thinking cycle

While there are several compelling reasons for organizations to invest in professional development, employees must be engaged in the learning process before anybody can reap the benefits. 

In a recent article for Go1, I considered the barriers to learning that organizations come up against and how to mitigate them. One of the most significant hurdles employees face is failing to see the bigger picture. They don’t understand why they need to learn or how it is relevant to their work. 

Many employees might also have had negative experiences of learning in the past. School might have been tedious or stressful, and they aren't interested in more formal study. 

Part of the challenge for L&D professionals is selling the idea of learning, and helping employees connect to the broader purpose is a crucial part of the process. 

Ultimately, if learners are engaged, they will retain information, be able to apply it, and be more satisfied in their jobs. 

Data from the LinkedIn Learning 2019 Workplace Learning Report reveals that 74% of employees want to learn during their spare time at work. The desire to learn is not an issue for the majority. 

If the drive to learn is there, employees can be intrinsically motivated to engage with content. It is the systems around learning which are preventing them from connecting. 

The report also shows that there are broader benefits to learning at work. When compared with ‘light learners’ (those learning less than one hour per week), ‘heavy learners' (those learning five hours or more per week) were 78% more likely to know where they wanted to go in their career, 48% more likely to have found purpose in their work, and 47% less likely to be stressed at work.

Sharing this data with employees could help them to connect with the process of learning on a deeper level and understand how it will benefit them. Other strategies can also be useful. 

Helping your colleagues connect with the purpose of learning

1. Develop the learning culture in your organization

For employees to connect with learning, those in leadership need to focus on the learning culture in the organization. While employees both want to learn and have the best intentions to do so, they will find it challenging if the rest of their team or superiors are not interested. Everyone has a role to play in developing a strong learning culture, but it begins with those in leadership prioritizing and valuing learning. 

2. Communicate the broader benefits of learning

There are many benefits to learning beyond being a diligent employee. A regular learning practice can alleviate stress, help employees to define the direction of their career, and help them to find purpose in their work. 

If employees understand that learning can have such a positive impact, they are far more likely to connect with the purpose. Immediately, they will be able to see how it can benefit them, their colleagues, customers, and the organization as a whole. 

Before employees can connect with learning, resources available to them have to be both relevant to their role in the organization and appropriate to the level of knowledge or skill. 

Lev Vygotsky, the psychologist whose theories underpin educational practices today, developed the concept of a ‘zone of proximal development’. This term describes the point at which a learner can use their current experience to construct new knowledge or skills, through interaction in an appropriate social environment. Along with suitable content, the environment or organizational culture needs to enable learning and keep employees moving forward. 

4. Look for opportunities to personalize the learning experience

Personalizing learning is the difference between content being engaging or boring. Content needs to address an individual’s learning needs as accurately as possible, and advancing technology is helping to simplify this process.

If your colleagues have access to learning materials appropriate to their learning journey, they are far more likely to see the purpose in the activities and understand why the content is meaningful to them. 

The best way to understand whether or not employees connect with the purpose of learning is to ask for regular feedback on their experience. Of the employees who engage with learning platforms, find out why they choose to log on regularly or ask what they think the purpose is.

You can ask for feedback through informal conversations, but anonymous surveys may give more accurate results as respondents will feel they can be more honest. Also, be aware that their time is limited, so finding a way to glean feedback quickly would also be beneficial. 

In the current workplace environment, employees want to direct their learning. Deloitte Insights explains that corporate learning departments are changing from education providers to content curators and experience facilitators. Their task is to develop innovative platforms that turn employee learning and development into a self-driven pursuit.

Employees should keep track of their professional development and manage their time. The more independent the process is, the more organic and engaging it will be.  

Overcoming barriers to learning: help your colleagues connect with the purpose 

Like it or not, barriers are a natural part of life. Things are rarely as simple or as straightforward as we want them to be. Whether there's a trial to pass or an obstacle to overcome, barriers often get in the way of our best-laid plans. However, these challenges make success all the more rewarding. And workplace learning is no exception. 

As technology continues to advance, learning at work is no longer an optional luxury. It is an essential benefit that no team can do without. Senior commentators at Deloitte explain that "in a competitive external talent market, learning is vital to an organisation’s ability to obtain needed skills."

Despite this, multiple barriers prevent employees from engaging in workplace learning. From time to access to a lack of technical skills, we'll analyse the most common barriers to learning at work and offer practical suggestions for how to overcome them.

If you wanted to learn a new skill at work tomorrow, would you know where to begin? Does your company have clearly defined processes for workplace learning and development? Does your boss encourage upskilling, or see it as a waste of time? Does your company foster a culture of learning, where employees feel safe and comfortable exploring new skills? Do you have the appropriate access and training to make the most of your organisation's LMS? 

In theory, every business should want to encourage its employees to learn. After all, IBM finds that every dollar invested in online learning results in $30 worth of productivity. In practice, these are just a few of the most common barriers that get in the way. 

In a 2022 study published in Educational Philosophy, Sebastian Anselmann explains that barriers to learning come in many shapes and sizes. He says, "barriers can occur on the individual, team or organisational level. Research indicates that motivational factors, social interactions, the general structure or equipment of the workplace, and further career development can all be learning barriers. In turn, these barriers can be external, internal, or refer to problems with organisational fit."

Thus, while online learning tools have made it easier than ever for employees to access study materials that are appropriate to their needs, barriers still abound. According to the Learning and Work Institute, just 17% of people say they face no barriers to learning at work. This leaves the remaining 83% experiencing the following barriers to learning: 

Even getting started with workplace learning can be a daunting challenge. Although some employees won’t have long graduated from high school or university, many would have finished formal learning years ago and may need help reconnecting with the process. Like any other muscle, your brain needs constant exercise and stimulation, so it can take a while to get back into the rhythm of learning. 

And these issues are just the tip of the iceberg! Other common hurdles that prevent employees from engaging in workplace learning include: 

Employees not connecting to the broader purpose of professional development

Businesses failing to invest in the appropriate learning tools

As you can see, there is no shortage of barriers to learning at work. So, the question becomes, how can businesses overcome these barriers and see their learning culture thrive? 

Now that we understand  some of the most common barriers to learning at work, let’s look at how organisations can overcome these challenges and make learning at work a more realistic and sustainable goal.

In the modern workplace, access to technology has enabled us to work whenever we want, wherever we want. For many, remote work has been a blessing. However, with this shift, the sense of community that employees once experienced at work has diminished. 

Professional learning and development relies on networks. According to the 70:20:10 model, 20% of all learning occurs through incidental social interactions. Today, there are many more ways to communicate (messaging platforms, email, video calls, etc.) but fewer opportunities to have spontaneous conversations about learning. 

To overcome this barrier, it may be beneficial to encourage employees to meet up face-to-face throughout the learning process. Bringing in a social element to workplace learning will boost motivation and give learners a chance to explore any concepts they find challenging. 

Many employees might have had negative experiences of learning in the past. School might have been tedious or stressful, a previous boss might have discouraged workplace learning, or they might be hesitant to undertake more formal study. 

For those in leadership positions, it is essential to show employees that modern learning has come a long way from the strict classrooms and rigid rules of the past. Learners can now select content that is relevant to them, as and when they need to. Alternatively, they can work with their colleagues to complete courses in groups. The learning process is far more flexible, targeted, and personalised, making it significantly more engaging.

It may be a question of attracting staff to engage with workplace learning by showing them how much learning has changed. Learning doesn't have to be dull and stressful — it can be engaging and rewarding! 

Ultimately, it all comes down to building a strong, robust learning culture, where employees are rewarded for seeking new skills and knowledge. For tips on how to achieve this, check out our article on creating a sustainable learning culture. 

Finding the time for learning is also a significant barrier in a time-poor world. There is always something more pressing to do, so upskilling tends to get pushed to the bottom of the pile.

Industry analyst Josh Bersin explains the average employee has only 24 minutes per week for formal learning. What's more, while 94% of workers say they see the benefit of making time for learning, just 49% make time to do so. Further, a recent survey found that 61% of employees think that time is the biggest barrier to their development. Other common barriers to workplace learning include money and a lack of formal direction. Clearly, employees struggle to find the time for workplace learning. 

In this working environment, organisations must prioritise learning. More importantly, they must tell employees that learning is a priority, not an afterthought. If staff understand that their development is integral to company strategy and that it is valued, they are far more likely to set aside the time for it. 

While it can be tempting to complete five minutes of study here and there (and ultimately this is better than nothing), employees should set aside dedicated blocks of time to focus on workplace learning. As usual, this is easier said than done. 

Finding time for workplace learning should be a top-down process, with managers and team leaders encouraging everyone to find time for learning. If your manager tells you to set aside time for learning, you are far more likely to do so than if you are left to find time for learning independently. 

Managers and leaders must set a positive example to foster a robust learning culture. For example, team leaders could encourage everyone to set aside half an hour before lunch on Fridays, followed by a team lunch to debrief and share what they learned. Structured sessions can make the process more social, while also easing the time pressure on employees. 

Perhaps the most significant barrier to learning is finding a space to focus and get started. Although the standard working environment has changed considerably to suit the needs of millennial employees, it can still be challenging to work uninterrupted. Offices are open-plan, and there is a consensus that it’s ok to speak to somebody at their desk. 

In fact, Time Magazine finds that the average office worker is interrupted a whopping 56 times per day! It's hard to find time to complete all your work in between these interruptions, let alone carve out extra time for learning. 

Interruptions can be particularly problematic for learning, which requires 100% focus and attention. According to one study, it takes the average employee 25 minutes and 26 seconds to completely refocus after being distracted. This lack of focus time makes workplace learning nearly impossible. Imagine trying to learn a complex, intricate new skill, only to have your concentration broken every few minutes. Worse still, it takes over 20 minutes for you to completely refocus! Clearly, this is far from the ideal learning environment.

From time to access to a lack of technical skills, we'll analyse the most common barriers to learning at work and offer practical suggestions for how to overcome them.