Category: Learning & Development

Say goodbye to impersonal online courses. Peer-to-peer learning in the workplace could be the secret to your business’s growth.

Online courses aren’t even in the top 10 ways employees report wanting to learn. This could be because we all experienced the course and workshop flood during the early 2020s. Or, it could be that there are so many out there that everyone has a different favorite.

Either way, it shows that if businesses really want their employees to learn and grow, they’ve got to do things differently. And more internally. Which is exactly where peer-to-peer learning in the workplace shines.

Why you should be doing peer-to-peer learning in the workplace

Back in 2020, we were all superglued to our computers with what felt like an endless wave of online learning—workshops, coaches, you name it.

Now, I see far fewer people selling online courses and it’s likely because we’re all bored of them. In-person learning, and learning from people we know and like, is far more engaging than some random stranger on the internet talking at us.

Especially when it’s a topic we care about and that can help us grow in our careers.

When companies have a learning-based culture, employees are 147% more likely to connect with their peers. 94% said they’d be more likely to remain with a company with active learning and development programs, too.

L&D is more important than ever. 79% of CEOs worry that there’s an increasing skill gap between office-based and remote employees that’s threatening organizational growth. Peer-to-peer learning in the workplace can be a key tool in bridging the divide.

Your culture plays a big role in peer-to-peer learning success

I’d argue that the real issue is that companies don’t know if they’re in-office, remote, or hybrid. Those that don’t know where they want their employees to be based, or have different rules for each team, make it harder for their employees to support each other, let alone learn from each other.

When employees are taught there’s no such thing as a stupid question, it improves communication within, and between, teams.

Sometimes we need to learn something new to stay engaged in our role. This is particularly true if we’ve been doing it for a long time or recent months have been stressful. 

Employees often leave because they feel frustrated and unsupported. Learning something new can help with their ability to cope with stress as well as how valued they feel at your organization.

If they’ve put all that work in only to get their usual pay check at the end and no other form of gratitude, they’re going to feel pretty fed up. Investing in their future through peer-to-peer learning in the workplace is a way to reward them and show that you notice, and value, their efforts.

How to create a culture of peer-to-peer learning in the workplace

Let’s look at what your organization can do to encourage peer-to-peer learning in the workplace:

Manager feedback

When it comes to peer-to-peer learning in the workplace, employees want to learn from their managers more than anyone else. But managers are busy. They often struggle with their own workloads, let alone assisting employees with theirs, too. 

Support from managers helps employees know they’re on the right track. It shows them what the next steps are.

And if your managers are too busy to help their team members grow as people and employees, it might be time to look at hiring more staff to give them the space to do so.

If managers are in a constant state of stress, that will have a ripple effect on their employees, too. It could mean the feedback they give them skews harsh over helpful, damaging employee morale and initiative rather than supporting it.

Make goals clear

If someone doesn’t know what they’re aiming for, or how to measure results, it can make it difficult to learn and know what direction to go in.

Clear goals, while they can be tough to put into place, help both managers and employees measure their success. It helps you know if initiatives to drive peer-to-peer learning in the workplace are working, spot gaps more easily, and track their progress.

Colleague collaboration

At least 55% of employees go to their colleagues first when they want to learn something new about business. So why not encourage that by creating more opportunities for peer-to-peer learning in the workplace?

Just 10% of learning is formally structured. 70% of learning takes place when colleagues are working and 20% comes from collaboration with colleagues. This shows just how important those relationships are. And how crucial peer-to-peer learning in the workplace can be for your business.

Everyone comes in with different levels of experience and different backgrounds. These things give them different perspectives that can teach their colleagues something new.

For example, a petite female wheelchair user will have a different experience with cars compared to an able-bodied, 6ft man. Combining their perspectives and experiences can help a car business design a vehicle that has a broader appeal and can therefore make more money than one that only works for a man over 6ft.

Share info in ERGs

Your employee resource groups connect your employees based on shared backgrounds or experiences. This foundation can make it easier for people to open up. In turn, fellow members may be more open to learning from them. Especially if they’ve been at your company longer or have more experience in a particular field.

Your ERGs can also be great spaces to pilot new peer-to-peer learning in the workplace initiatives.

Mentorship schemes

Mentoring can help your newer employees understand how your business works and navigate the workforce.

Reverse mentoring, meanwhile, can support your older, more experienced colleagues to adapt to new technologies and ways of communicating.

Mentoring in any form is an important and easy way to foster peer-to-peer learning in the workplace.

Lightning talks

Lightning talks are five-minute presentations about a topic that interests the speaker. Your lightning talk event could have a theme, such as new technologies, or be open to anything anyone wants to share.

You might even discover some of your employees have hidden public speaking talents! These sessions can be fun ways to build culture while also enabling peer-to-peer learning in the workplace.

Employee-led workshops

Since employees prefer to learn from colleagues, why not get employees to lead workshops? Some of the lightning talk topics could lead to longer workshops that benefit some or all of your workforce. 

Conclusion 

Peer-to-peer learning in the workplace can improve employee morale, engagement, and initiative. It teaches your team members new things in a low-effort, high-results way.

If you want to make the most of peer-to-peer learning in the workplace, Workrowd’s tools can help. From ensuring everyone has easy access to your initiatives, to following up to collect feedback and even analyzing the data for you, everything you need is in one place.

Get in touch today to discover how Workrowd can supercharge your employee initiatives and company culture.

January might be the time when everyone discusses goal setting, but you can set goals at any time of the year. Some people even argue January is the time for rest and the best time for goal setting activities is in the spring (when those of us in the Northern Hemisphere actually see the sun. In theory).

It doesn’t really matter, though. Goals can be set at any time of the year. They’re a great motivator whatever level someone is within your organization.

For instance, employees who set goals are 3.6 times more likely to be committed to their employer. What’s more, they’re 14.2 times more likely to feel inspired at work when they set their own goals.

As if that wasn’t enough, they’re also 6.7 times more likely to feel proud of their organization and 6.5 times more likely to recommend it as a great place to work.

So let’s explore how you can help your team do more with effective goal setting activities in 2026:

Be specific

I used to really hate SMART goals. But it turns out this goal setting formula has its benefits—over 80% of people perform better when goals are specific and challenging compared to people with vague or no goals.

Over a third of leaders, meanwhile, think the main cause of failure is because goals aren’t clear enough.

Following a formula such as SMART for your goal setting activities ensures goals feel more concrete. It clearly answers the question as to whether or not an employee has achieved the goal.

For instance “sell more” is a vague goal. How much? By when? Using what methods?

“Upsell five customers by the end of Q1” is far more specific.

Goals can also help employees with their learning objectives: those with clear goals are 8.1 times more likely to find new ways to improve at work.

Use OKRs

OKRs—objectives and key results—is a form of goal setting activities where you specify what the goal (objective) is, and how you’ll know if you’ve attained it (key results).

They have a big impact, too: more than 64% of employees think their company is successful after implementing OKRs. That’s compared to just 39% who don’t.

Give it a timeframe

Whatever type of goals you set, you need to be clear about what the timeframe is.

Many people work better toward a deadline because it makes it feel more urgent, so then they want to work on it and have fewer excuses to procrastinate.

Make sure when you agree on a date as part of your goal setting activities, it’s a date that’s doable. But perhaps a little outside of employees’ comfort zone to help drive them.

Make it a little uncomfortable

Our greatest growth comes from being outside of our comfort zones. I’m not talking about jumping out of an airplane if you’re afraid of heights, but a salesperson could aim to earn slightly more than they think they’re capable of, for example. This pushes them to do more, to think differently, and to aim higher.

When employees set difficult goals, they report 34% higher job satisfaction compared to those who have less challenging objectives.

However, only 33% of entry-level or operational-level employees set difficult goals, compared to 54% of top-level executives. I’d argue that entry-level employees could benefit more from these goals, though, as they have more to learn.

But for them to feel comfortable aiming high, they need the support of their manager and colleagues. This includes before, during, and after goal setting activities.

Use feedback to create better goals

Combining feedback and goal setting activitiess leads to a performance increase of 30% compared to using one or the other. This makes sense, because feedback can point employees in the direction of where they need to grow their skills and what their next goal should be.

Get your managers involved

While managers and supervisors should set their own goals, they should also help their employees achieve theirs. They can offer advice and support when goals seem challenging, and provide coping mechanisms so that the weight of what they’re trying to achieve doesn’t get them down.

When employees regularly meet with supervisors around goal setting activities, it boosts morale by five times. It also increases employee motivation when their goals are adjusted for current market conditions and priorities.

It makes sense: employees know that what they’re working on makes a difference to the business and wider industry as opposed to feeling like they’re doing their role for the sake of it.

Use your ERGs

Employee groups help employees stay focused on their goals or even work out which ones to set through group-sponsored goal setting activities. Colleagues can share resources, offer moral support, and even mentor employees towards achieving their goals.

Want to get more from your ERGs? Workrowd can help make your groups easier to find, navigate, and benefit from.

Tell everyone

A little bit of repetition goes a long way. Over half of 11,000 employees couldn’t name their organization’s top three goals. Which either means the company doesn’t have them, or it’s not reiterating them enough.

So, even if you feel like you’re repeating yourself for the 10,000^th time, remember that there will be someone who’s new, been sick, or otherwise out of the office so won’t have seen what your new goals are. It happens.

Reminders are always useful, too, as they can help keep employees focused. It gives them a lens through which to view what they’re doing, so then they can prioritize based on how much a task will contribute to business goals.

Conclusion 

How you get there doesn’t really matter. What matters is the results. Be sure you’re setting specific goals that are a little outside of employees’ comfort zones. You never know what they might achieve. Heck, they might even surprise themselves.

Want to support your employees with more effective goal setting activities that help them achieve and exceed their objectives? Try Workrowd for managing your employee initiatives. Get in touch to book your free demo.

Mentoring is one of the most powerful ways to level up in the workforce. In all its forms, including reverse mentoring, it can drive positive outcomes for your organization.

Mentoring can help mentees avoid roadblocks. It can help them progress in their careers faster, and build crucial networking connections to open new doors for them. It has benefits for mentors, too, like boosting their teaching and public speaking skills.

The business benefits are there, as well. Companies with mentoring programs see 18% higher profits. Those without had profits that were 45% worse on average. Those are some huge margins.

And yet, despite the fact 76% of people believe mentors are important, and 97% of people who have a mentor say they find it to be a valuable experience, only 37% have one.

So let’s dive into reverse mentoring. We’ll examine what it is, what its benefits are, and how to implement it in your business.

What is reverse mentoring?

Reverse mentoring is when a junior team member mentors someone more senior than them. For instance, a new Gen Z employee could mentor a senior leader.

When mentoring relationships are mixed gender or race/ethnicity, they’re more likely to offer career benefits. On the flip side, mentoring relationships based on similar demographics can provide psychosocial benefits. So, the type of mentoring that’s right for you will depend on the benefits you want for your business and your employees.

On the DiversityInc Top 50, 72% of companies have reverse mentoring programs. This highlights just how significant they can be for top-performing businesses.

Reverse mentoring schemes can open doors that may otherwise remain closed due to age or experience. Understanding differences and bridging the gaps are powerful ways for both mentor and mentee to develop their skills in new areas and boost their confidence at work.

What are the benefits of reverse mentoring?

Reverse mentoring aids in the sharing of internal and external knowledge.

For example, younger employees can educate more experienced colleagues on navigating social media and AI. This helps ensure their knowledge remains fresh and relevant. Simple things like how to write a prompt or how algorithms work can make a huge difference to someone’s career.

They can also educate them on cultural changes and how different things are now. And how quickly things change.

In addition, mentors feel lower levels of anxiety and find their jobs more meaningful. So it’s no surprise that 89% of mentees plan to become mentors themselves.

Mentors also get promoted six times more often than employees who aren’t involved in a mentorship program. Mentees are promoted five times more often.

For businesses, as well as experiencing the 18% higher profits we discussed earlier, mentoring schemes also come with higher retention rates—72% for mentees and 69% for mentors.

With current job offer acceptance rates at just 56% according to McKinsey, and 18% of new hires leaving during probation, a reverse mentoring program could be just what businesses need to keep their team members.

How to build a reverse mentoring program

Now that we’ve explored the benefits, let’s look at how to build your reverse mentoring program.

Talk about it regularly

Mentoring programs often die because employees don’t know they exist or don’t realize the benefits.

Sharing the benefits of reverse mentoring for employees can help win them over.

Senior team members may not understand the differences with reverse mentoring and how much they can learn from younger colleagues. Using internal business communications to educate them can boost both their interest and their involvement.

Encourage employees to take part

Some employees will simply always feel too shy, or too busy, to participate. It’s therefore on HR departments and managers to make employees realize that mentoring will make them better at their jobs and give them more time and energy, not less.

This is particularly important for reverse mentoring. With senior team members having greater responsibilities and not feeling like they have the time to sit down with someone they may not believe they can learn from, it’s all the more important to show them the benefits.

Get leaders to set an example

When your leaders set an example, it shows the whole team that the people they respect use and value the program. This can help break down that reluctance and show that you’re serious about reverse mentoring.

Share case studies

Marketers love case studies because they work. They tell a story, which our brains love, and they have tangible benefits. They help us imagine that we could experience those results, too. So then we want to get that win for ourselves.

When your mentees share what they’ve learned from being mentored, and mentors share what they’ve gotten out of it, it can make people want to participate even more than you sharing generic benefits like the ones listed above.

Use the right software

The right software can make it easier to connect mentors and mentees. For example, mentees can share information on what skills they’re looking to build, while mentors can share their experiences.

You can use tools to connect employees with mentors, or create groups for mentees/mentors to network and share advice. The easier you make it for them to connect, the more everyone will get out of your reverse mentoring program.

Conclusion 

Reverse mentoring is a powerful way to upskill your workforce and build connections between generations. It can boost every aspect of your business from retention to promotions. When done well, it can even increase your profit margins.

And, using the right tools, you can make the mentor matching and communication process quicker and easier for everyone.

Use Workrowd

Using Workrowd, you can connect your mentors and mentees so that everyone benefits from your reverse mentoring program. Plus, you get real-time analytics on how this initiative is helping your team. That way, you’ll have everything you need to build the best program possible.

Want to find out more? Get in touch to book your free demo.

The number of coaches has soared in recent years. It feels like everyone has either become a coach, is training to be a coach, or has had coaching recently. But that hasn’t made the task of finding a career coach for your employees any easier.

In fact, with so many options it may be harder than ever. What should you look for, and what difference could it really make to your business? Let’s take a look at some tips for finding a career coach for your organization:

Why finding a career coach for your employees is important

Coaching’s biggest benefit is its ability to improve someone’s career growth. It makes them better at problem solving and communication, so they can level up faster and so can your business.

A coach is someone objective to a situation—and perhaps your business—that employees can talk through their issues with. This can often help de-escalate situations or simply help them let off steam. That way they don’t take it out on their colleagues.

One of the things coaches can help employees with is their communication. In turn, this can enhance your internal communications and improve conflict resolution. So projects get completed faster and with less stress for everyone.

Speaking of stress, finding a career coach for employees can also support them through periods of transition, like mergers or layoffs. These often result in restructurings or new/changed responsibilities. Employees who get left behind when their colleagues were let go can also suffer from a form of survivor’s guilt. Finding a career coach for employees can support them through the transition so that their mental health and productivity take less of a hit.

Coaching sessions also act as a break to an employee’s day. This can help them to go back to problems with a clear head, even if their current issue isn’t what they talk to their coach about. So then they can see solutions to a challenge they hadn’t noticed before because they were just too close to it.

With all of this in mind, it’s no surprise that coaching has a 221% ROI. That’s an impressive impact for what may only amount to an hour out of an employee’s day each month.

Companies with a strong coaching culture also report higher revenue growth than those in their industry peer group.

Tips for finding a career coach

Now that we’ve explored the benefits of finding a career coach for your employees, let’s see how to find one and what you should keep in mind on your search:

Ask for recommendations

Recommendations are one of the fastest ways of finding a career coach, and it’s how 46% of people find them. Social proof is a powerful thing that can support your decision making and reassure you that you’ve chosen the right person.

You could even ask your employees via a survey or in your employee groups. They may not know someone directly, but employee posts on social media sites get considerably more reach than company posts. So even if they can’t suggest someone, they’ve got a better chance of finding someone.

Need help improving your employee surveys or groups so that it’s easier to collect and organize information? Check out Workrowd.

Look on LinkedIn 

Even if you get a referral from someone you trust, it’s worth looking a career coach up on LinkedIn, or their own website, to see what you can find. They may be the perfect match for you, but likewise they may not be based on their prior experience.

Also, if you don’t have anyone to ask for recommendations, LinkedIn research is a great place to start. You can search the site using your industry and coaching-related keywords, and see what it suggests.

LinkedIn groups (or even Facebook ones!) related to your industry are another place to look or ask for recommendations on finding a career coach for employees.

Many people who have a history in an industry, or work in its periphery (like coaches) will often be members of industry groups to try to find new clients.

Check their credentials

Did you know the coaching industry is unregulated? That means anyone can call themselves a coach without any formal qualifications. This could open you up to poor advice at best and potentially dangerous and/or illegal consequences at worst.

Qualified coaches have spent hundreds of hours helping people in all sorts of situations within their field. Some may specialize in certain situations or areas, like senior leadership or career transitions.

A qualified career coach knows how to handle situations sensitively. They center the conversation on the employee’s needs and don’t judge them or make it about themselves. These are important skills that must be learned and cultivated but which often don’t come naturally.

So, when you’re working on finding a career coach for your employees, check their credentials. If you can’t find any, consider looking elsewhere.

Consider their specialties 

If you need a coach who understands the nuances of a particular industry, specializes in neurodivergence, or can teach your employees particular skills, you need to keep in mind someone’s specialties when finding a career coach for employees.

These will often be listed on their LinkedIn and may also feature on their website.

From my experience, coaches’ LinkedIn profiles are often more up-to-date than their websites, but I’d still recommend checking both. LinkedIn gets prioritized because of time constraints and LinkedIn’s increased exposure. Checking both will give you the most well-rounded picture of what someone could be like to work with.

Don’t forget the ROI

If a coach is cheap, is that because they’re not as experienced solving problems? Do they have fewer qualifications? Is it because they don’t understand your industry?

Spending less money doesn’t always mean cost savings. Sometimes it can end up costing you more because they were the wrong coach for you. Take the time to make a decision so that you’re not tied into a contract with someone who hinders, rather than helps, your employees.

With such a high potential ROI, you want to ensure you make the right decision when finding a career coach for employees.

Conclusion 

Finding a career coach for your employees can not only boost their careers, but your business productivity and profits, too.

There are no downsides to upskilling and reskilling your employees, especially not in the current climate. So long as you find someone who’s an expert in the field you need, you’re all set to support your employees’ current and future careers.

Want to make sure your employees not only know about career coaching opportunities, but all the other great programming you offer? Workrowd has the tools you need.

With an all-in-one command center for your employee groups, programs, events, and resources, plus automated analytics, you can build a world-class employee experience without the stress. Book a free discussion call with us to learn how we can empower you to reduce admin work and boost engagement across your organization.

Constructive criticism is essential for a healthy company culture. 75% of employees feel that feedback is valuable, while 65% want more of it. But knowing it’s important and actually understanding how to give constructive criticism are two different things.

Not knowing how to give constructive criticism could even affect your employee churn rate. Companies that provide regular feedback experience turnover rates that are 14.9% lower than those that don’t.

So, your employees want you to help them improve. This ties into how important learning and development is to employees of all generations. 

Millions of us are going to have to learn and adapt to the new technological revolution. Feedback from colleagues, managers, and even mentors or coaches, will play a vital role in helping each of us pivot into new areas.

So let’s dig deep into how to give constructive criticism:

Why should you care about how to give constructive criticism?

92% of people believe feedback can help them improve their performance.

And with Gen Z, the biggest, most diverse generation ever now entering the workforce (and many of them having started their working lives during Covid), knowing how to give constructive criticism could be a huge positive for your employer brand. Especially when you consider that 63% of Gen Z-ers want more constructive feedback throughout the year.

Gen Z has the tech skills you need to keep your business on the cutting edge. But, they sometimes lack traditional workplace skills. Giving them, and also teaching them how to give constructive criticism, can help them navigate this new terrain to make them more successful in their roles.

Why? Constructive criticism helps someone improve their performance as well as their confidence. It can reassure them that they’re on the right track and redirect them if they’re heading in the wrong direction.

And let’s not forget the keyword here: constructive. It’s not about being mean or even just focusing on the negatives. It’s about pointing out what they’re doing right and what needs improvement so that they can perform at their best at work. Which of course means you get better results out of them.

All this helps you create an open culture where people feel comfortable discussing what’s working and what isn’t in your business.

As a result, they can iterate and improve much faster, and they’ll feel more comfortable taking risks. In turn, this could put you ahead of your competition.

How to give constructive criticism

So now that we know why constructive criticism in the workplace matters, how can you ensure the feedback you provide is effective?

Be upfront

You don’t want to sugarcoat things when approaching how to give constructive criticism. The conversation will wind up taking twice as long. At the same time though, you want to be polite in the way you offer it. While it’s technically the same if you say something is “terrible” or it “needs improvement,” one will make the recipient feel defensive, while the other is far less likely to offend them. 

Word choice is important when providing feedback, whether you do it in written form or in person. You want to ensure whatever you say is clear and honest, without being insulting to the other person.

Beware of formulas that sound inauthentic

We’ve all been taught formulas like “feedback sandwiches” by now. Which means your employee is likely to see right through it if you’re not careful, and instead of dwelling on the positives like you want them to, focus on the negatives.

Or worse, think you’re only saying the positives to lessen the blow of what you really think. It’s no longer a recipe for success when it comes to how to give constructive criticism.

Say nice things too!

Too often, we hear “constructive criticism” and assume it’s all about the negatives. But the point of feedback formulas isn’t just to soften the blow for the recipient, it’s also to remind you to acknowledge the positives, too.

We can often forget to do this when we’re finding fault with something. Highlighting positives is as much of a skill—if not a harder one—than pointing out what’s wrong.

However, if you want the best from your team, you need to talk to them about the good and the bad. Both types of feedback should feel genuine, not forced.

Be sure to thank your employees for their hard work as much as you criticize them. It’ll make them feel more valued and engaged at work!

Remember: constructive criticism is a skill

People often assume that they can give feedback because they’ve sat in front of a TV and critiqued someone’s performance on America’s Got Talent. But doing it in the workplace is an entirely different ball game.

Giving effective feedback is a skill that requires active work. The words and phrases you use make a huge difference in how the recipient feels and the information they internalize.

When you actively work on how to give constructive criticism, you ensure that you can help and guide the recipient in the right direction, rather than just being mean (which, let’s face it, criticism can often feel like—especially online).

Create a culture of feedback

The more someone gets feedback, the less it feels like a big deal when they receive it. 

Likewise, they should be able to offer feedback to your business about what’s working and what isn’t.

One way you can do this is by sending automated feedback surveys at particular times. Workrowd can help you do this. Simply set it and forget it; the software will send your surveys, collect and analyze the data, and make it available to you in easy-to-read dashboards. It’s a no-brainer.

Share tips in an ERG

Employee groups are a great way to connect employees. Why not use them as a way for employees to learn new skills, too? 

Constrictive criticism is an art and a science that requires an understanding of language and psychology—especially the psychology of the people you work with, since some people will interpret things differently. Sharing good examples or asking questions about how to phrase things is important.

This can further reinforce your culture of giving feedback, too.

Want help managing your ERGs and getting the most from them? Book your free demo to find out how Workrowd can help.

Conclusion 

Learning how to give constructive criticism is a key part of growing in any role. It’s even more important than ever as many of us adapt to new ways of working.

It’s crucial to remember that how to give constructive criticism is an evolving skill. There’ll always be new or better ways to deliver feedback that you haven’t considered before. How you deliver your comments also make a difference to the recipient’s reaction and emotions, and whether they learn from the feedback you share or feel defensive.

If you’re ready to gather more feedback to improve your employee experience, and support your team members to build their skills, Workrowd can help. Contact us today to learn how our all-in-one platform can help you reach and exceed your goals.

Supporting employee career growth can play a vital role in your talent attraction and retention efforts. Offering career ladders ensures your people know they have a path for growth in your organization.

Which is important, because a quarter of employees report plans to quit their jobs in the next six months due to a lack of growth opportunities.

Promoting internally can save you money on the expensive hiring process, ensure you retain your star players, and help you attract better-quality hires who want to grow with your organization.

The higher up in an organization you go, the more likely a promotion is to be internal. 21.5% of C-Suite and other top positions are internal hires, compared to just 8.9% lower down the ladder. 

However, there are benefits to promoting employees who start at the bottom of your career ladders, too. For instance, they have more internal knowledge on how things work. Which means they can use this to find efficiencies, boost productivity, and connect more easily with colleagues at every level.

Here’s how to get the most out of career ladders in your organization:

Connect those on similar paths

There are inevitably times, when we’re working toward a goal, where we feel disheartened. Or when we need support from someone who’s been there to solve a problem. ERGs are an effective tool to connect those who are on similar paths.

Workrowd can help you create and manage employee groups that drive real impact. It’s a one-stop shop for employees to find the latest information on what’s happening in the organization, alongside ways for them to network and share knowledge. Get in touch today to book your free demo.

Use internal and external trainers

To climb your career ladders, employees need to learn new technical and soft skills. While you’re likely to have lots of great knowledge internally, external coaches, mentors, and teachers are also useful resources that shouldn’t be underestimated.

Not only can they act as objective sounding boards, but their external knowledge and experience can prevent groupthink by ensuring that you regularly get new insights and perspectives.

There’s always a new way of doing things. Sometimes that new way of doing things can give your business a new lease on life. And in turn, help you become more competitive as more employees use their knowledge to ascend your career ladders.

Set quotas and embrace DEI

Despite the recent pushback, studies have shown that quotas and DEI initiatives are effective at weeding out incompetent employees. They ultimately help businesses become more profitable.

The London School of Economics found that adding more women increased the competency of male employees by 3%. 

Organizations with greater gender diversity are 25% more likely to outperform competitors. And those with greater ethnic diversity are 36% more likely to outperform. Diverse teams make better designs 87% of the time.

In addition, diversity makes teams 35% more productive, increases cash flow per employee by 2.5x, and means businesses get 26% more job applicants.

Diversity is still something that matters to Gen Z, too. Businesses that stop prioritizing it may become less attractive employers to the first generation of digital natives. In doing so, they risk being left behind by the future of not just the workforce, but the world.

Offer mentoring

Mentoring is an effective tool for knowledge-sharing. Those who’ve already climbed their career ladders can share their knowledge with people further down. Which can be particularly useful for supporting underrepresented talent in the workplace.

Team members from underrepresented backgrounds face unique challenges that can be difficult to navigate without adequate support. A mentor can provide this support, making the employee feel more like they do belong in the workplace and can continue to climb one or more career ladders within your organization.

Send surveys to check in

The only way you’ll know if the support you offer your employees is effective is if you send surveys to check in and ask what they think of their current situation and where they’d like to go.

Workrowd can help you send those surveys.

And better yet—you can set them to go out automatically at particular milestones. 

That way, the process becomes more seamless for you and employees. Wouldn’t you rather focus on supporting employees and helping them up your career ladders, rather than sending surveys?

Consider alternative paths

Not everyone wants to be—or is suited to being—a manager. Is that a reason to lose your top employees?

Being a manager requires a unique balance of technical and people skills. The truth is, a lot of people don’t have this combo (even those in management). But there never used to be non-managerial career ladders for those who wanted to grow their skills or income.

However, the world of work is changing. Many millennials and Gen Z-ers don’t want to follow traditional paths. But they also don’t see why they can’t continue to grow.

Consider having career ladders for those who want to focus on their technical knowledge without losing time to people management.

For example, you could create a principal engineer role for software developers who want to focus on knowledge over people management. They can become the go-to person on a particular area or topic. It can help streamline processes and retain internal knowledge.

Conclusion 

Climbing career ladders is seen as a rite of passage for many people. However, in 2025, it isn’t for everyone. Make sure you offer a variety of options to help everyone thrive, no matter their goals.

Supporting employees to climb your career ladders, instead of them having to jump from one company to the next as is often the case, helps you retain internal knowledge and top talent.

Connect colleagues

If you’d like to empower your employees who are climbing career ladders, why not connect them via an employee group? Get in touch today to find out more about how Workrowd could help you do just that.

Dread. That’s the feeling many employees get in the lead-up to their annual performance review.

I’ve had plenty of conversations with friends panicking over them. No matter how long they’ve been in a role or how good they know they are at it.

There’s something about sitting down and formally discussing their performance over the year that makes people sick to their stomachs.

While businesses can’t completely eradicate this feeling, there are steps they can take to make the process better. Not just for employees’ mental health, but also for getting the most out of the annual performance review process and their employees.

Have regular check-ins

Rather than having one big check-in after 365 days, have regular ones throughout the year instead. This will make them shorter, more focused, and reduce anxiety as they become part of everyday work.

It also means that when you’re discussing something that’s happened, it’s fresher in everyone’s minds. That makes it easier to look back on and learn from issues, versus a single annual performance review.

It’s not just about using these sessions for feedback—they also help make managers more accessible to employees. This puts everyone at ease when they have meetings together.

Make feedback a regular occurrence

Whether you use radical candor, constructive criticism, or another technique, the more you make feedback a regular part of the business, the less anxious employees will feel about their annual performance review. And the less there will be to cover when that time of year rolls around.

A third of employees want regular feedback outside of an annual performance review. By providing them with that, you ensure that they continue to grow and improve throughout the year. Likely at a faster pace, too, because they can adapt what they’re doing sooner.

In any review, ensure there’s a balance of positive and negative feedback. That way employees don’t feel like they’re constantly being criticized.

When we only receive negative feedback, it can make us worry that we can’t do anything right and we’re not good enough in a role. This is particularly true if we lack confidence or are newer in our careers.

Positive feedback and recognition go a long way toward making employees feel appreciated and supported in the workplace. 

Share the agenda in advance

Whatever you can do to reassure employees that their annual performance review isn’t a bad thing can mean that review season doesn’t cause anxiety or stress.

Sharing a clear plan or outline for the session in advance, for example, makes it so employees know what will be covered. That way, they’re not walking into the discussion blindly.

Preparing employees for conversations makes the whole thing less stressful. It’s often the fear of the unknown that can trigger anxiety. People can prepare talking points and responses, making the process more accessible for those who don’t think well on the spot.

The clear outline for the conversation also keeps the meeting focused and ensures you cover everything.

Make it a two-way conversation

In one of my previous roles, my annual performance review was not, in fact, a performance review. 

I sat with my manager and they told me what I needed to do for the next 12 months. There was no room for me to speak, no analysis of what I’d done, and my opinion didn’t matter.

Despite all that “effort”, none of what was listed for my future priorities got done. Everyone forgot about the reviews the following day, and it was back to business as usual.

To get the most out of employees, it’s important for them to feel heard. Making their annual performance review a two-way conversation is a really simple way to do this.

After all, it’s about them. So why wouldn’t you ask for their opinion? For what they think they could do better, and what they want to achieve going forward?

Create a clear goal—together

If an employee isn’t onboard with their performance goals, they’re not going to put as much effort into achieving them. That’s why it’s important that their annual performance review is a two-way conversation, and you work out what the goals are for the next 12 months together.

Empowering them to be a part of this conversation may also allow them to feel more comfortable reflecting back on the previous 12 months, as it will feel more like an open discussion.

Develop a culture of psychological safety

Psychological safety is a key tenet of a healthy workforce where employees feel comfortable receiving feedback. 

When people are comfortable at work, they’re more likely to share what they’re going through and be more able to analyze what impacted their performance and why. Meaning they can improve before their next annual performance review.

Use more than a spreadsheet

58% of businesses still use spreadsheets to manage and monitor performance reviews. While spreadsheets have their uses, there are far better ways to assess an annual performance review in 2025.

The right tool can make it easier for employees and managers to track goals and enable you to analyze the progress.

Employees are more likely to trust software to be objective and deliver a fair review than just their manager, too. Which makes sense when you consider that we’re all prone to unconscious biases and it’s easy to forget things.

Despite how much easier technology can make performance reviews, just 45% of business leaders think their organization uses consistent tools for them. Showing it’s time for an upheaval in how we approach the annual performance review process.

Conclusion

The annual performance review process shouldn’t be a time of stress and anxiety for employees or managers.

The right tools, systems, and culture can make it a more comfortable, effective process for everyone. And not just one where managers talk at employees about things that are forgotten 24 hours later.

Boost your feedback culture

Want to find out what your employees really think of your company’s annual performance review? Why not send a survey?

Using Workrowd, you can send automated surveys to collect feedback from employees after key milestones—like their annual performance review. Get in touch today to book your free demo.

A PwC Financial Wellness survey found that finances are the largest source of stress for 54% of people. Since stressed people are less productive at work, building financial literacy for employees is important to your organization’s success.

What’s more, when you factor in that just 33% of the global population is financially literate according to the World Economic Forum, the stress levels really aren’t surprising.

Part of the problem is that many of us don’t learn financial literacy at school or from family members. Which means if we don’t actively seek to learn more about how to manage our finances, we never will.

But it isn’t that simple.

The sheer amount of information available around financial literacy can be overwhelming. This can cause people to end up even more confused than they were to begin with.

While it isn’t an employer’s job to offer financial literacy for employees, it can be an opportunity to support them in a way that drives business results. Consider it a perk that sets them up for a happier, more stable future.

It’s also a way to show employees that you value them. And that you understand the importance of education and financial literacy for employees—even if you’re not a financial organization.

Plus, it can reinforce or create a culture of learning, inspiring employees to think differently and explore new skills and topics.

And, according to Harvard Business Review, when employees are financially literate, it can help them at work to:

• Make business decisions
• Have a better understanding of how expenses impact a company’s profit and loss and balance sheet
• Design budgets
• Understand how their actions impact the business, and how they can improve the organization’s financial health

It’s little things like these that can add up to a more sound, stable, organization.

How to build financial literacy for employees in your organization

So, we’ve looked at why financial literacy for employees is important. Now let’s explore how you can build it across your organization:

Set up an employee group to talk money

When you have an employee group designed specifically for people to talk finances, it creates a safe space for discussion. So team members can share what’s going on with them, how they feel, and ask questions.

It creates somewhere people feel comfortable talking about money. This helps break down barriers when money is still seen as a taboo discussion topic.

Need help managing your employee groups? Or want to get more out of them? Workrowd has your back!

Get in touch to discover how we can help and book your free demo today.

Organize a training day

A one-off training session that any team member can sign up for is a great way to build financial literacy for employees. Sessions can cover everything from basic concepts to more advanced money management.

It gets employees in the mindset of thinking about their finances without distractions from their everyday work.

Organize a lunch and learn

On the other hand, a full day might be overwhelming for some. A shorter session, or a lunch and learn, gives them the option to learn without bombarding them with tons of information in a short space of time.

If it’s a series of sessions around financial literacy for employees, they can pick just the topics that are relevant or interesting to them. This ensures they don’t waste their time but still get to learn.

Bring in an expert

Getting a financial advisor or certified financial planner to come in and talk about financial literacy for employees allows them to talk to someone objective and experienced.

Ideally you want someone who’s neutral and doesn’t promote their own services or tools. That can lead to slippery slopes like encouraging employees to use an investment platform when they’re not ready.

Someone more neutral can outline the good and bad of all options and strategies. This helps employees make more informed decisions. They can also answer employees’ questions without a biased point of view, offering them support without a sales angle.

Recommend resources like books or podcasts

Everyone learns differently. Books, podcasts, video training sessions, or even vlogs can help improve financial literacy for employees on their own schedule. 

They could then discuss the book or podcast’s content in the financial literacy employee group with their colleagues.

Here are a couple of books to get you started:

I Will Teach You To Be Rich – Ramit Sethi

Ramit approaches finance with humor, writing in plain English and laying things out in a clear, easy-to-understand way. He also has versions of the book adapted for different audiences by country.

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds – Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen, Camilla Falkenberg and Emma Due Bitz

Women earn, on average, 23% less than men. This equates to almost $400,000 dollars lost over the course of their lifetimes. This book looks at how managing money is different for women and how they can make the most of their funds.

Ask employees

When you understand how employees think and learn, you can better adapt to their needs.

The best way to learn what they need from you is to ask them. 

Consider sending an employee survey asking about financial literacy for employees; what they know, what they’d like to learn, and how they learn best. That then ensures you can tailor the training to them. Rather than presenting them with something that isn’t the right fit for the people in your organization.

If you create a learning module that isn’t the right fit for them, they’re less likely to use it. At that point, you’ll have wasted your investment.

Conclusion

Investing in financial literacy for employees doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be a benefit that helps your people grow at work and beyond. It can reduce their stress levels and therefore make them more productive at work.

Their financial literacy levels can also impact their decision-making skills and, in the process, your budget.

Investing in their skills now will pay you (and them) dividends in the future.

Ready to level up and deliver more when it comes to financial literacy for employees? Workrowd has the tools you need.

Visit us online to learn how our all-in-one platform makes it easy to launch and manage employee groups, track the impact of training sessions, and deliver a world-class employee experience with less stress.

Questions? Feel free to email us directly at hello@workrowd.com.

Communication styles play a big role in how well teams work together and whether their organizations can succeed.

Despite that, communication is something that we often take for granted. Sure, we can have conversations with people, but can we actually speak to them effectively? Do we hear what they’re trying to say in response?

Based on the fact that 86% of employees and executives feel that a lack of effective communication and collaboration is the main cause of workplace failures, I’m going to say no.

Even teams that do communicate effectively could improve their productivity by up to 25%, so those who don’t work on their communication styles are really missing out.

Types of communication styles

So, let’s start by diving into the different types of communication styles.

Passive communication

Passive communication styles can come in two different forms.

Firstly, when someone puts other people’s needs above their own.

Secondly, when they speak very little or not at all.

While factoring in other people’s needs and letting others be heard is important, there’s the risk that a passive communicator can take a backseat and not get their opinions or expertise heard. This can lead to them feeling invisible or underappreciated.

So make sure to encourage everyone to join in the conversation. That way, nobody fades into the background.

Also consider that some people may feel uncomfortable speaking up in a meeting for a range of reasons—from feeling anxious in large groups, to neurodivergence, to particularly loud colleagues, to preferring time to mull over ideas—so try to factor this in.

It can help to send agendas in advance so that attendees can put together talking points if they wish. This helps accommodate a wider range of communication styles.

Aggressive communication

Aggressive communication styles are when people come across as forceful or challenging. They’re often confrontational and want their voice to be heard.

This can be intimidating for colleagues, particularly those with more passive communication styles or who’ve experienced emotional trauma in their past.

Passive-aggressive communication

Passive aggression can be contradictory, with verbal and non-verbal communication not matching.

It could also come in the form of sarcasm, comments behind someone’s back, or speaking up after a meeting to complain.

Assertive communication

An assertive communicator can balance getting their opinion heard and hearing the opinions of others. They’re direct speakers who factor in other people’s feelings and ideas.

Out of all the communication styles, this one doesn’t always come naturally, but it can be learned.

How to cater to different communication styles

To get the most from a team, leaders need to learn how to cater to different communication styles. They also need to understand that communication styles can change, both because of the people around them and the work they do on themselves.

So let’s explore what you can do to cater to different communication styles in your business:

Offer different communication methods

Most of us prefer a particular way of learning, whether that’s audio, visual, or written.

For instance, I retain more of what I read than what I watch or listen to. If I’m on a call, I’ll usually take notes to help me process what everyone has said.

It’s easier than ever to support people’s different processing methods now, with most video platforms auto-generating captions.

So when you want to explain something, you can record a voice note or video, then have it automatically transcribed so that everyone can understand it. This ensures everyone gets what you’re trying to say, regardless of their communication styles, leaving fewer grey areas.

Analyze your own speaking style

It helps to understand your own speaking style so that you can understand what you’re getting right and what you could improve on. 

Consider recording a call and getting a coach, mentor, or even AI to offer feedback on it. Or, if you’re writing something, send that over.

They can then help you identify areas where your message is clear and areas where you could improve to get your tone and direction right for your audience. It’s almost like a communication styles audit.

Listen actively

Good old active listening strikes again. Like communication itself, active listening is a skill. Learning it requires work and emotional intelligence.

Active listening means not interrupting other people when they talk, and focusing on what they’re saying, not on how you’re going to respond.

This can improve the quality of your working relationships and ensure you get the most from them. Active listening is important for all communication styles.

Slow down

Some of us have minds that jump from one idea to another to another before we’ve finished speaking a sentence.

While it’s not always easy for us to slow down, being in the moment and focusing on what the other person is trying to say can help us respond in the most effective way.

Jotting down ideas so that you can bring them up at the right moment ensures you can continue to listen without forgetting your point.

Consider cultural factors

Culture will always play a role in communication styles. Even the US and the UK, despite speaking the same language, have communication differences.

The British sense of humor doesn’t always translate well, for example. Which is why British TV shows often get remade with a US audience in mind.

Conclusion

There will always be some employees you find it harder to communicate with than others. The key is to understand, and accept, that everyone is different, and keep an open mind.

Listening to everyone and treating all communication styles as valid—alongside working on your own—will help you to get the most out of your team and help to prevent problems from spiraling.

Create a culture of communication

Encouraging employees to communicate about things outside of work, or sharing their workplace challenges, can help to bridge differing communication styles.

When employees have common ground, they’re more likely to work together and feel like they belong in the workplace.

Workrowd can help you manage your employee groups, programs, and events to get the most from them. Whether you’re looking to level up or just maintain your current success with less effort, we can help. Contact us today to book your free demo at hello@workrowd.com.

By 2026, up to 1.4 million workers will need reskilling. For 70% of those people, it will be because their jobs have become obsolete.

Those are some pretty scary numbers, particularly for those of us who are wary about the rise of AI.

But alongside that comes opportunity. Learning new skills is good for our physical and mental health.

Reskilling also provides businesses with the opportunity to retain internal knowledge and maintain company culture. It enables them to keep employees whose jobs may become obsolete but who can be reskilled to work in other areas.

41% of employers plan to focus reskilling on high-performing employees, showing how much their attitudes and knowledge are valued despite the changing world of work.

However, just 30% of employees whose roles are most likely to become obsolete have had training in the last year. Businesses need to act sooner rather than later to stay ahead.

What’s more, 74% of employees are ready for reskilling or retraining, providing businesses with the perfect opportunity to avoid needing to rehire when the time comes.

What is reskilling?

Reskilling is the process of teaching an employee an entirely new skill set, unrelated to their current role. It’s in contrast to upskilling, where people learn skills related to their current role.

For example, reskilling would be a graphic designer learning to become a software developer.

Upskilling would be a software developer learning a new programming language. 

For millions of workers though, upskilling is no longer enough.

Skills now have an average half-life of less than five years. That half-life is even lower in some tech areas at just 2.5 years. 

Reskilling is going to play a pivotal role in the future of work as industries become more reliant on AI and new jobs are created as old ones become obsolete.

Reskilling ideas

So what can you do to reskill your employees? Let’s look at some things to consider:

Identify key skills

What skills do you need to retain?

Consider technical skills your organization can benefit from, but don’t forget soft skills. These are vital to helping leaders support employees during times of change. They take time to learn and implement, and therefore should be core to your reskilling program. 

Skills like communication, giving and receiving feedback in an empathetic way, providing a psychologically safe workplace, and setting positive examples will all help employees feel supported and valued as they learn new skills.

Leaders’ soft skills are also what influence your company culture far more than their technical skills, so it’s vital to ensure that you retain employees who have these abilities so that your business doesn’t suffer in more ways than one.

Set up a mentorship scheme

Mentoring is a really good way for employees to learn new skills from someone with existing knowledge. It can be more hands-on than returning to a classroom, providing networking and growth opportunities in a real-world setting.

Internally, you can connect employees via employee groups, mentoring platforms, or via HR.

Alternatively, you could connect employees with people from outside of your organization. This can be helpful if you want to support underrepresented employees but don’t have the internal tools to do so.

Providing culturally competent reskilling opportunities is important.

Bring in outside support

Outside, objective support can help you spot internal knowledge gaps and avoid groupthink.

An external trainer or coach can tailor advice to your business while bringing in their own expertise that may still be relevant.

External support could come in the form of a one-off session, or long-term support like coaching or a structured program. 

It could also mean working with an external consultant who can identify areas for reskilling within your organization. Then, they can help train your existing employees in those areas.

Collect employee feedback

Some people don’t adjust well to change. Listening to your employees is key to keeping them engaged in times of change or challenge.

You could do this through feedback surveys, employee listening platforms, focus groups, or open-door policies. Different collection methods will appeal to different people. More introverted employees are less likely to talk to someone even with an open-door policy in place, for example, but they might feel comfortable answering a survey.

The more options you provide, the more likely you are to tap into different types of employees and opinions. This will give you the most well-rounded feedback that you can then act upon.

Set up ERGs

Employee resource groups are powerful tools to connect employees. They don’t just have to be for social reasons, though: you can use them as reskilling tools, too.

They’re a way for employees to find mentors, discuss what’s happening at work, share learnings, link to resources, and connect with people focused on reskilling in the same areas. All this support contributes to a sense of belonging in the workplace, reducing the worry that can come from AI taking people’s jobs and offering a sense of security instead.

Conclusion

Reskilling employees is more important than ever. It will help you stay ahead of your competition, provide a psychologically safe workplace, and prepare your business for the ever-changing landscape that we now live in.

Offering training opportunities supports employees’ wellbeing too, with all the benefits to mental health and brain power that come from learning new skills.

Support your employees’ reskilling needs and goals

What do your employees really think about reskilling? What do they want to learn? How can they connect with others who share their learning goals?

With Workrowd’s all-in-one platform, you can easily connect employees with an array of reskilling opportunities. Plus, with our automated surveys feeding into real-time analytics, you can maximize the ROI of every one of your reskilling efforts.

Workrowd empowers you to spend less time collecting data and more time taking action based on what your employees need. Get in touch to book your demo. Visit us online or reach out directly at hello@workrowd.com.