How do you build an organisation in which all of the employees are fully engaged and aligned with the strategy and values of the business? If you want the long answer, well that could easily fill a book so perhaps we’ll spare the Training Zone website from being overloaded and instead concentrate on one particular aspect of engagement; looking one way in which organisations can help employees to feel they have a valuable part to play in the growth of the business.
The solution is so simple; it’s surprising that it hasn’t been tried before. Quite simply, if you want employees to be engaged in the organisation, then make them responsible for their own engagement. And the way to do that is through the provision of an online self engagement and monitoring tool. It’s an area which we have covered in a previous training zone post but it is one which we feel bears repeating, as it can have a measurable effect on the level of employee engagement seen in an organisation.
With a varied program of activities, surveys and development resources, online employee led engagement programs are designed to help individuals and teams to work more closely together and to engage with the organisation. Activities can be undertaken either individually or in conjunction with colleagues and because many of them are delivered in bite-size chunks, training can be easily slotted in between normal daily activities. An added benefit is that team leaders can easily monitor progress and suggest further activities which will help to fill gaps in knowledge or move training onto the next level.
In a way, this type of self engagement programme sits perfectly alongside other blended learning activities. And the ethos is much the same; when training is moved from being a rigidly controlled structure to one which looks to meet individual development needs as and when required it speaks to individual rather than corporate needs. When that happens, not only does the organisation benefit from having employees who have received the training they require at the time it is required, because individual developmental needs have been recognised and met employees are more likely to be engaged with the organisation’s aims.
In the post-industrial revolution business landscape organisations required their employees to be automata, carrying out set tasks and processes in a measured fashion. But the world has moved on, business has moved on and now the demand is for employees who can work on their own initiative, who can collaborate to create innovative solutions, and who can play a full part in the future success of the organisation. Blended learning and self engagement programs sit perfectly in the new imperative. They are by no means the sole solution for those business leaders who are looking to boost levels of engagement, but they do send out a positive message that the organisation cares about its people as individuals who are worthy of development.
