Skills, Training, and Learning in the Workplace — Perspectives from the Field

Workforce skills and training are the subject of enormous debate, with varying definitions, diverse opinions, and persistent questions about investment and impact. In Maine, the Center for Workplace Learning at USM has been engaged with a variety of businesses to understand, promote, and implement learning programs for workers. In partnership with over twenty different business organizations, the Center has developed on-site educational programs, primarily for frontline workers. Most often these programs are created in response to business challenges to upgrade the skills and educational levels of current employees, also called “incumbent workers.”

The competitive pressures that drive businesses to invest in the education and training of workers are neither new nor surprising. New technology requires workers to change or upgrade skills. Organizational redesign requires workers to think and perform in new ways. Growing diversity in the workforce requires effective communication. Retention and promotion from within require expanding worker skill sets. While these pressures have been familiar to Maine businesses for over a decade, the recent acceleration of economic growth and market competition, combined with the shortage of skilled labor, has refocused attention on workforce skills.

Through the past seven years of involvement in the field of workplace education, I have heard people at every level of their organization talk about learning in the workplace: what it is, what it means, and what it does for individuals and organizations. Common themes and questions emerge. This article presents three frequently asked questions from the business community, with responses based upon what we have learned at the Center through our experience of designing and delivering workplace education programs.

Successful organizations of the future will be those that are resilient, adaptable, and innovative. These are the same characteristics that will be most valued in individual workers. Through the many transitions from traditional work environments, the employee’s role is being transformed and a new set of core work skills is emerging. These are the new “basic skills,” and they fall into three domains: managing work, managing oneself, and working with others.

Managing work includes the technical skills required for successful job performance — competence in the areas of basic math and English, as well as knowledge of technical information, equipment operation, and work processes. This type of job-content knowledge, and the training that accompanies it, are not new, for workers are routinely exposed to both formal and informal job-specific training. The pace has quickened, however. With the introduction of new technologies, cross-training, frontline quality processes, and other organizational changes, the demands for technical competence are becoming broader and deeper.

An increasingly important work competency is effective interpersonal skills. Whereas traditional production environments often demanded this skill only from leadership positions, today’s businesses operate with high levels of worker participation, group activities, and direct customer interface. Team and work-cell functions, leadership, and supervisory relationships place more emphasis upon collaborative work. Increasing cultural diversity in the workforce adds a further challenge to group cohesion and communication. As a result, workers today are required to respond in new ways to the people around them. Effective communication, coaching, assisting, and working with others have become essential workplace skills.

Finally, the ability to manage oneself effectively is perhaps the core ingredient of the new basic skill set. This is the ability to balance work and home life, cope with stress and the unexpected, manage time and resources, set appropriate limits and priorities, make decisions, evaluate results, learn, and plan. As organizations continue to expand the responsibilities of individual workers, the demands for self-management skills also rise. It has been said that “learning to learn” (becoming an effective learner) may be the ultimate skill in the new millennium. For both individual workers and their employing organizations, taking active responsibility for managing learning is an essential skill.

The implications for training and education are many. Workers at all levels of organizations face challenges to improve technical, interpersonal, and self-management skills. Not surprisingly, the kinds of worksite courses most in demand from the Center for Workplace Learning in the past five years have been computer topics and communication skills, including English as a second language. Individuals and work groups have undertaken much of this coursework in direct response to changes in the work routine, both current and anticipated.

Because job roles are no longer limited to the narrow functions they once were, we have found that the interdisciplinary approach used in adult education provides an effective way to develop the new workplace skills. By taking into account the needs, skills, and experiences of each learner, and by involving course participants in setting training goals, the technical content, group process, and self-management skills become integrated. While this concurrent skills development differs from more customary training models which compartmentalize subjects and skills, we believe that the holistic approach suits the new skill requirements of contemporary workplaces.

This is an excellent question to bring up at your next team or staff meeting! You may find that it takes a good bit of probing to get at the significance of ongoing learning in your organization. For some, lifelong learning is measured through enrollment in formal training or academic programs. More broadly speaking, lifelong learning may be defined as the extent to which people are actively engaged in their own personal or professional growth and development.

In workplaces, evidence of lifelong learning manifests itself in both individual and organizational behaviors. For individuals, regular involvement in learning activities can lead to high rates of participation and initiative, job bids, promotion, or increased wages. One of the most important factors is how the organization itself — its policies and culture — influences learning activity. Companies typically have both supports and constraints that shape the workplace learning environment. Supports include access, opportunity, and incentive for participation in training and education, and a workplace culture where open communication and involved leadership are present. Constraints include an absence of these factors, as well as organizational practices that inhibit risk-taking or demonstrate contradictions in stated goals versus actual practices.

Thinking most broadly, the informal learning that takes place in workplaces may be the best indicator of how employees view themselves as learners. Conversations in the parking lot, cafeteria, and work groups, as well as with peers or mentors, can reveal the extent to which workers see themselves as active and lifelong learners. The notion that “learning is everybody’s responsibility” is still relatively new in most workplaces, and it is often received with the same skepticism applied to the management supposition that workers are now “paid to think.” Transition to a culture of lifelong learning is an internal process that develops gradually. Organizations that pay attention to the ways in which learning happens now will have the most success in harnessing learning as a strategic business tool for the future.

Finally, referring back to the original question, a productive starting place for the discussion about lifelong learning is one’s own personal experience. What does lifelong learning look like for you?

The most common pitfalls of training efforts emerge for simple reasons: seeking some kind of “silver bullet,” expectations for training outcomes are often vague or overambitious. As an intervention, training may be applied indiscriminately, unevenly, or not at all. Common complaints about relevance and the lack of transferring skills give many training efforts a “program of the month” reputation and a vulnerable status in the annual budget. Accountability and outcomes for training are commonly presented in terms of participant satisfaction, rather than what was learned or applied.

In the course of developing educational programs in all kinds of business settings, the Center for Workplace Learning has experienced many training environments. We have seen that effective training and education takes place in workplaces where it is integrated into daily operations. We offer the following recommendations:

• Be patient. Learning is a developmental process. Look for mid- or long-range outcomes, and try to avoid switching programs and priorities too often. Learn as much as you can about how learning actually takes place in your organization — formally and informally — and what the supports and constraints are.
• Be realistic. Training and education are one piece of the organizational system, but they are neither the root cause nor the panacea for workplace problems. Set expectations for training programs carefully, link them to actual work applications, and put time and energy into follow-up and reinforcement.
• Think broadly. If learning is the goal, make it the focus of activities in every part of the organization. Do not leave responsibility for learning at the door of the training department (particularly if you are a small business and don’t have one!). Build learning opportunities on the shop floor through less formal methods such as coaching and mentoring.
• Be persistent. Link training and educational activities to the most stable parts of the organization — for example, the company mission, established work routines, and performance appraisal systems. Most of all, model “lifelong learning” behaviors yourself. Seek out the opportunities for growth and development that will allow you to advance your own career and personal aspirations.