Category: Learning & Development

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.

It’s no secret that strong leadership skills can benefit people of all levels. So it follows that offering leadership activities for employees can boost both your employee experience and your bottom line.

When I was in high school, my teachers nominated me for an extracurricular activity called “Learning to Lead.”

It was exactly what it sounded like: a program where we learned to lead.

In one of the first sessions, they emphasized that there are different kinds of leaders. Some people lead a team, others lead by example. It was why some people seemed/felt like odd choices for the program.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to witness the different kinds of leaders in society. There are those who run businesses or teams, who are great at people management.

Those who consciously choose to be influential within society, a culture, an industry, or a business. They choose to become trendsetters and thought leaders within their circle through sharing their knowledge on social media, internal comms, or elsewhere.

Then there are those who lead by example, but not necessarily consciously. They show their colleagues the way to do things perhaps without ever saying it. They set the tone, atmosphere, and attitude for everything that’s going on around them.

To be successful, businesses need multiple kinds of leaders. And they need to support and encourage different kinds of leadership.

Unfortunately, 69% of millennials feel they haven’t had enough leadership development, and only 5% of businesses have implemented leadership development programs at every level.

So what sorts of leadership activities for employees can you implement to grow your team’s skills?

Employee groups

Employee groups are an effective way for team members to share their knowledge and meet like-minded people.

They allow employees with similar backgrounds to share their experiences and learnings, meaning their colleagues can (hopefully) avoid the same mistakes and pitfalls.

They also provide employees with some moral support when things get challenging. Plus, they can be a great venue for offering leadership activities for employees.

Of course, for employee groups to work, they first need to be effective. And unfortunately, many of them could be run better.

That’s where we come in.

Workrowd helps you manage your employee groups so that you, and your employees, can get the most from them. We make it easier than ever for your employees to network, so they can share their knowledge and develop their skills. Including through a slate of leadership activities for employees.

Get in touch today to book your free demo.

Coaching

Coaching is a powerful tool that enables employees to discuss their situations, goals, and challenges with someone unbiased.

Working with an external coach comes with the benefit that they’re detached from the company and situation, meaning they can offer objective feedback to a problem.

Coaches can also help leaders design a path toward their goals and hold them accountable to navigating it. They can even recommend some leadership activities for employees based on what they hear from team members.

Mentoring

Mentors can set examples for employees, particularly for those from underrepresented backgrounds. They show the employee that someone else from that background has done it before, and so they can, too.

They’ll inevitably have shared experiences that are different from those who don’t come from that background.

For example, an employee with an invisible illness will experience a workplace differently from someone who doesn’t have an invisible illness. This affects how they approach the workday in ways that their colleagues may not understand unless they’ve been there.

An employee with a shared experience can offer moral support and guidance, making obstacles feel less insurmountable and boosting the employee’s confidence. Supporting mentoring pairs with programming is also a great way to offer leadership activities for employees.

Reading 

Never underestimate the power of a good book, whether it’s a physical book, audiobook, or e-book.

There are lots of great books out there on leadership. Some are classics that people still talk about years after publication. That would only be the case if they had something interesting/useful to say and leaders continued to learn from them.

Some examples include:

• Radical Candor – Kim Scott
• Start With Why – Simon Sinek
• Leadership Mindset 2.0 – R. Michael Anderson

Reading allows employees to learn at their own pace, take notes, and share their findings with their colleagues.

Books on psychology are also useful when it comes to management, as they teach leaders how to empathize with people from different backgrounds and understand the alternative ways that people can think.

This is something that’s key for someone to be a great leader, whatever their role. They can’t lead effectively if they can’t empathize with the people around them.

You could even create a leadership-focused book club where people can share their favorite reads and key takeaways! It’s a great, low-effort way to offer leadership activities for employees.

Training

Training workshops enable employees to disconnect from everyday duties and focus on learning new skills and strategies. 

While these can be intense so aren’t suitable for everyone, the focused atmosphere and diverse participants (and hopefully diverse speakers if you host a longer event or do them regularly) allow employees to shake up their thinking patterns, learn new skills, and understand more about themselves and other people.

Training should be a core focus of your leadership activities for employees.

Team-building activities

I know, these can be cringeworthy. But hear me out before you judge.

When working with other people, employees naturally fall into roles and hierarchies, often without intending to.

Team building activities allow you to find who your natural leaders are. So then you don’t just get the folks who put themselves forward, you get the ones who naturally take charge and set examples, which aren’t always the same people.

These sorts of leadership activities for employees are also a way for people to hone their skills in a more practical environment. As opposed to the other options on this list which are more theoretical.

Alternatively, you could allocate roles to people, choosing who’s in charge, so that different employees get to try different roles. You can then find your natural leaders who may not volunteer to be in charge, but suit the position all the same.

Conclusion

Whatever someone’s current or future role is, the right leadership activities for employees can help them grow their technical and personal skills so that they can be more effective leaders.

Regardless of how long someone has been a leader for, there’s always something new to learn. That could be a new tool to try, a new psychological theory to get employees working better together, or a new activity that hones their skills.

The more leadership activities for employees you offer, the more future leaders you can support and the more diverse your leaders will be.

Ready to elevate your leadership activities for employees and boost participation organization-wide? You need Workrowd’s comprehensive tool suite.

With centralized access to all your leadership activities for employees, personalized dashboards, automated analytics, and more, you can cultivate leaders at every level.

Ready to learn more? Visit us online or reach out to us directly at hello@workrowd.com.

According to Gartner, only 45% of employees believe their employer sees them as a person. It should come as no surprise then, that investing in employees’ career progression is key to both retention and engagement.

Why? Because it shows them that you do, in fact, see them as human.

And when 82% of people want career progression, if you don’t deliver, you risk losing your star players.

Investing in your employees shows them you appreciate that they spend their time to earn you money. And you repay their effort by investing in them. This reciprocal relationship is key to employee engagement.

Let’s dig into some of the reasons why offering career progression is so important.

Employees leave because they’re bored

Employees want training. In fact, a lack of career development was the top reason employees left jobs between April 2021 and April 2022.

Yet 70% of current employees feel they’ll have to leave their roles to advance their careers.

The more employees who leave, the more it’ll cost you to hire and train replacements. And the more company knowledge you’ll lose due to the lack of career progression.

On the flip side, 94% of employees will stay with a company that invests in their career.

Retraining is cheaper than hiring

Replacing a trained employee costs a whopping 200% of their annual salary. 

Then there’s the onboarding time, and the time it takes new hires to reach full productivity. That’s a lot of time and money you lose because you didn’t invest in career progression for your current employees.

That money could go towards providing even more advanced training opportunities, opening in new markets, expanding your team, advertising more intensively, or just about anything else.

Employees want to become leaders

Millennial employees are your future leaders. Some might already be in leadership positions at your organization. So it’s no wonder that 60% of millennials want leadership training.

But if 60% want leadership training, it suggests that they’re not getting enough. Or worse—that they’re being put into leadership positions without getting any.

It’s great that they have the company and industry know-how to move up in your business, but leading a team is very different from being knowledge-focused. It requires skills that many of us were never taught in formal education.

To get the most out of leaders and their employees, leadership training is vital.

Bringing in external trainers can give team members an opportunity to get a fresh perspective. Which enables them to avoid groupthink and prevents bad habits.

It can also provide existing leaders with a refresher, helping them support their employees in the ways they need now—not how they needed five years ago.

With 48% of leaders wanting to learn from assignments or external coaches, it shows that they have a strong desire to keep learning. 

Offering them the chance to grow helps to retain them, as well as their team members. 

It ensures their knowledge is up-to-date, they can expand it further, and they get to apply what they’ve learned for their direct reports. Which then sets them up for career progression, too.

Employees want flexible learning

Self-paced learning is a powerful tool that enables employees to learn around their lives.

Over half (58%) of employees want to learn at their own pace. This allows them the opportunity to work towards career progression without sacrificing their personal time or affecting their daily work activities.

E-learning is a powerful tool in the self-paced learning arsenal. It’s so powerful that it increases retention rates by 60%.

68% of employees would rather learn at work. Which makes sense given that what they’re learning will primarily benefit their career.

Giving employees a window during the work week when they can focus on self-development shows you understand how important career progression is not just to them, but to your organization and its future success.

It also helps break up the week, which can provide employees the vital break they need to approach problems they may have with a clear head—and find solutions.

Employees want to have a purpose

Employees want to feel like they have a purpose at work. Like they’re working toward a shared goal alongside their colleagues and employer.

They want something more than just working for a paycheck. A job can be so much more than that.

Employees need access to career progression opportunities to encourage them to develop their skills, and purpose to ensure that they want to.

Employees need to keep up

In our fast-paced, ever-changing world, if we aren’t learning, we’re going backward.

Which means employees need to be actively developing new skills and expanding their knowledge to be able to keep up in the world, and to help your business do the same.

As fear over AI coming for our jobs increases, businesses need to have open communication lines with employees, educating them on what AI in the workplace means for them and their roles, and how to adopt it as a friend, not a foe.

AI can be a great tool for career progression, but only when employees are empowered to use it safely and correctly.

Employees who feel like they’re progressing are more likely to stay

Ultimately, when employees feel like they’re progressing in their role, they’re more likely to choose to stay with your organization.

They have no reason to leave when they feel supported in their position and like they have a future there.

Even more so when you reassure them about their future at your company by offering appropriate training (or re-training) options.

Offering career progression opportunities, even if employees don’t take you up on them, helps them feel like they’re working toward a greater purpose and like they’re appreciated by their employer, not just seen as an easily replaceable cog.

Conclusion

Providing employees with career progression opportunities should be a key part of any retention strategy. It shows you support them, ensures the role stays interesting for them, and helps them keep up with the ever-changing world.

Ready to maximize the impact of your career progression initiatives? Workrowd makes it easy.

With all your employee groups, programs, events, and information in one place, everyone can easily find the career progression resources that are right for them. Plus, real-time analytics ensure you always know what’s working and what’s not.

To learn more and explore how Workrowd can empower you to take career progression to the next level at your organization, visit us online or reach out to us at hello@workrowd.com.

Upskilling is teaching your employees additional skills to give them, and your business, a boost.

Why is upskilling important?

The number of skills required for a single job increases by 10% every year. So if employees don’t keep upskilling, they’ll fall behind. And so will their employer.

Things now move so quickly that a third of the skills that appeared in an average job posting in 2017 are no longer required. That’s a huge number of obsolete skills in just a few years.

So it makes sense that 48% of US workers would switch to a new job that offered skills training opportunities.

And that 65% of workers believe employer-provided upskilling is very important when evaluating a potential new job. Upskilling means they get more present and future opportunities.

Upskilling is an even higher priority for millennial and gen Z workers, with 93% of them expecting employers to offer learning opportunities.

Providing upskilling opportunities for your employees will help you retain your current team members and attract new ones. It could even mean you attract better quality hires who stick around for longer.

For workers who’ve recently taken part in an upskilling program, the average salary increase is $8,000 or more. That could make a huge difference to someone’s quality of life, especially in the current economic climate.

And as AI becomes a larger part of the workplace, offering opportunities for employees to upskill or reskill will be pivotal to maintaining a positive company culture. Especially when so many people are worried AI will take their jobs.

Creative ways to upskill your employees

So, how can you upskill your employees? There are lots of options, and something for every budget:

Start a book club

Books are a great way to learn. The increased availability of ebooks and audiobooks also means that they’re more accessible than ever. With material available on nearly every subject imaginable, you can use workplace book clubs for upskilling employees on a wide array of topics.

Create internal training modules

If you’ve got a particularly complicated product, or a lot of internal knowledge you want to retain and share, internal training modules can be a great way to spread that information.

Investing in e-learning software means employees can dive in as part of their onboarding, during a set day/time, or at their own pace.

You could create these modules on anything from how to use a particular tool to company culture and everything in between.

Start an employee group

Employee groups are a simple way for team members to connect with people who have the skills they need, or for them to learn together.

They provide employees with the chance to interact with people from outside of their department and learn things they might not have otherwise had the chance to.

A robust community of employee groups can not only do wonders for your employee engagement rates, but can help with upskilling on both hard and soft skills.

Mentoring 

Mentoring enables employees to receive one-on-one support to help them grow in a particular area. This means they get training that’s tailored to their individual situation, helping them grow faster.

This is also particularly useful for succession planning. A manager’s replacement can shadow them for a set time, for example, to help them fully understand the role and how to react in different situations.

Volunteer work

Volunteer work allows employees to engage in upskilling while giving back to their community. There are volunteer roles for just about every skill set, so whether it’s cooking in a soup kitchen or doing admin for a charity, there’ll be something for them.

Supporting employees to give back to their community also improves your employer brand, showing the outside world that you really do care about more than just money. Which can further help you attract and retain talent.

For employees who work remotely, or long hours, volunteer work also provides them with a desk break, improving their mental health through spending time with other people and helping them.

Away day

A break from the office (whether that’s a company office or a work-from-home office) can refresh tired minds and encourage creativity. 

The higher-ups at Marvel regularly do this to plan their upcoming movies and TV shows. It’s a way to disconnect from the outside world and our everyday lives, which can reduce stress and boost idea generation.

Away days are also great for cramming in lots of knowledge in a short space of time. 

Employees don’t need to worry about picking children up from school and missing the end of the session, or the dog needing to go outside at an awkward time. 

They have more energy to focus on learning new things, which helps them retain the information.

They can also spend time with other employees—or even people from outside of the organization—learning the same thing. This can improve loneliness, increase their sense of belonging, and lead to future career opportunities, too.

Networking 

Everyone knows something we don’t. Networking is therefore a crucial way for employees to engage in upskilling.

How can you encourage networking within your organization?

Some ideas include:

• Breakfast sessions
• Lunch and learns
• Evening pizza
• Hackathons
• Charity events (such as running a total number of hours as an organization in a month)
• Holiday gatherings
• Town hall meetings

Conclusion

Upskilling doesn’t have to be hugely expensive for businesses or employees. But the more businesses and employees foster a culture of learning, the more it will benefit the business and employees’ skills and mental health. 

It also future proofs employees’ careers and the business itself, allowing them to adapt to the changing times.

Want to find out what your employees really want from upskilling? Workrowd makes it easy to deliver upskilling opportunities in a wide variety of formats, and track employee satisfaction.

With all your groups, programs, and events in one place, everyone can easily tap into what works for them. Plus, our automated feedback requests and real-time analytics ensure you always know what is and isn’t getting results.

If this sounds useful for your organization, we’d love to chat. Visit us online to schedule some time, or email us directly at hello@workrowd.com.

59% of managers who oversee one or two employees report having no training at all. 41% of managers who oversee three to five employees also report having no training. Which means that in most organizations, the list of training topics for managers is…nil.

Eep.

It can be frustrating when you’re an employee, managed by someone with zero training. 

I’ve spoken with people about it before, and employees can tell. It’s in everything from how their manager deals with superiors to how they organize a meeting.

So, what training topics for managers should you focus on to build a happier and healthier team? Let’s take a look:

Communication

When someone moves into a management position, it’s important they know how to effectively communicate with their employees. They need to be able to keep the peace, maintain employee well-being, manage conflict, and speak to different groups of people.

Intercultural communication is vital for managers to understand. Some words have negative connotations that aren’t always recognized by people outside of a particular group (like “mastering” a skill). Accordingly, inclusive language is important when thinking about training topics for managers.

Negotiation and conflict resolution

Managers will inevitably have to deal with some form of conflict in their roles. This is true whether it’s between team members, pushing back against unrealistic executive expectations, or confronting clients.

To successfully navigate these murky waters, it requires adequate training. Otherwise, someone—often employees—will suffer.

For instance, if a manager knows that the date by which higher-ups want a project completed would require employees to work significant overtime, it’s important that they can fight in their employees’ corner to suggest a more realistic completion date.

Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback is a unique art and science that requires training. Managers need to ensure employees feel valued while also offering guidance to help them improve. 

It’s important to be able to provide positive feedback alongside anything negative.

Unnecessarily harsh or blunt tones (which can be an unintentional default when giving written feedback) can upset employees. It can even cause them to shut down, especially if they’re learning a new skill or are new to the business.

Managers need to be able to provide feedback that’s compassionate and empathetic, while also being honest.

It’s a skill that requires education, feedback (on the feedback itself), and practice to get it right, so it should definitely be on your list of training topics for managers.

Unconscious bias

We all have unconscious biases. Until we actively work to address and overcome them, they can impact everything from hiring decisions and promotions, to how we speak to different generations or cultures.

Inclusion

What steps can managers take to make the workplace as inclusive as possible? To different backgrounds, abilities, and disabilities?

With people retiring later than ever, and living longer, managers now often have to manage four generations at a time: baby boomers, gen X, millennials, and gen Z. These groups all have different expectations from work and therefore different requirements from their supervisors.

This obviously then requires you to offer a wider array of training topics for managers.

Another key element of inclusion training can focus on supporting people with disabilities.

Every disability is different. And every person with a disability needs different things.

Managers need to know how to discuss accommodations with their employees in an understanding way. And how to implement those accommodations.

In-person and virtual management

The modern workplace offers more ways to work than ever. 

Managers therefore need to understand how to manage distributed teams. This includes what technology to use, how it changes communication, and the difference it makes to company culture.

The new world of work requires new training topics for managers versus those that were necessary in the past.

Delegation

One of the keys to effective management is being able to delegate tasks to the right person.

There’s no point giving someone a creative task if their skills lie more in analytics.

It’s important for managers to get to know their teams’ strengths and weaknesses. That way, they can help team members grow the skills that will propel them toward their future goals and benefit the rest of the team, too.

Employee well-being

Managers play a key role in employees’ well-being. So it makes sense that they should understand how to support it. They need to know things like:

• How to spot the signs of burnout
• How changes in employees’ behavior might reflect something going on
• How their own mood can affect the atmosphere in the office—and therefore employees’ moods and behavior

Awareness of these things, and knowing how to deal with them, means they have a lower impact on the team and therefore the business. It’s a crucial addition to your training topics for managers.

Confidence and presentation skills

Managers need to come across as confident, even if they don’t always feel it. This confidence is contagious and can rub off on the rest of their team.

Anxiety can have the same impact. When managers exude anxiety, it can make their employees doubt their own abilities and the capabilities of their manager. Which can impact morale as well as productivity.

Managers also often have to speak up in meetings or present during them. They need to be able to do this confidently, clearly, and within the time constraints.

Therefore, offering training topics for managers around public speaking and presenting can make a big difference.

Cybersecurity 

The more seriously managers take cybersecurity, the more seriously employees will take it. 

And as hackers get more and more sophisticated, employees need to know how to spot the signs that they’re being targeted to help protect not just them, but the company as a whole.

It only takes one small mistake by someone not paying attention to bring a whole system down. Implementing relevant training topics for managers is an important first line of defense.

Hiring and firing

Providing managers with training on how to hire and fire people in the right way eases some of the stress of these processes.

It means that it’s not uncharted territory for new managers. They have guidelines in place that they can adapt to suit their own approach and the company’s hiring and firing processes.

Nurturing talent

Managers need to understand how to bring the best out of their employees. 

And be aware that the approach is likely to be different for everyone. It depends on each person’s personality, current skills, and where they want to go in their careers.

Conclusion

There are lots of training topics for managers that supervisors need to understand to excel in their roles. 

Investing in this training both when they’re promoted and during their tenure will make them more confident managers. And therefore more effective managers. 

This will improve employees’ confidence in their abilities and make them more productive, too.

Want an easier way to ensure your team members have access to all the training topics for managers they need to succeed? Workrowd can help.

With all your programs, groups, and events centralized in one place, you can set your managers up for success no matter where or when they work. Plus, automated feedback requests and real-time analytics ensure you always have a pulse on employees’ needs.

If this sounds like it could be a fit for your organization, visit us online or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

Workplace book clubs offer a tried and true way to boost outcomes for your team and your bottom line. Reading reduces stress levels by 68%. And it only takes 6 minutes of reading to see that effect.

I can personally attest to this. On the days when I start my morning reading a book, or have a reading break at lunchtime, I feel calmer and more productive. I even find that it can inspire me to be more creative in my freelance and fiction writing.

It’s not surprising when you consider that reading fiction can make people better at decision-making by between 50% and 100%! Now that could make a big difference to workplace productivity and efficiency.

Reading is more accessible than ever, too. With ebooks, audiobooks, paperbacks, and hardbacks, there’s truly a way for everyone to enjoy a story.

So, let’s take a look at how you can build a workplace full of readers at your company by leveraging workplace book clubs:

How to build workplace book clubs

Find the right leaders

The person/people in charge of your workplace book clubs should already be fans of reading. In addition, they need to be willing to spread the word about how and why it’s great.

It also helps if they read in lots of different genres, because they’ll be able to keep an open mind to suggestions. Plus, that way they can introduce other members to genres they may not have considered before.

Pick how you’ll choose books

How often will you choose books? And, just as importantly, how will you choose books?

Will a different person pick the book each month? This is a good way to keep people involved and get them to share what they love.

Bestseller lists are also great places to find ideas, because chances are some employees may already want to read what’s on them to see what all the fuss is about (and if it’s justified).

When it’s time to share the chosen book of the month, make sure you have an employee group set up to keep everyone in touch. As with most initiatives, communication is key if you want people to stay engaged.

Invite people to join

Now, it’s time to recruit people!

You could:

• Send a company-wide email
• Post on Slack and/or Workrowd
• Invite people during meetings/catch ups
• Share it on social media (internally or externally)
• Drop individual invites, particularly if you know someone likes reading

Decide how everyone will share their thoughts

Will you catch up over video call? In person? Just chat over Slack or on Workrowd? A combination?

Pick a system that works for everyone.

Create talking points

It’s important to have talking points about the book to get the conversation going.

Otherwise, you risk hearing crickets as nobody knows what they should talk about.

For nonfiction, you could ask:

• What did you learn?
• Will you be making any changes in your life because of what you learned?
• Who do you think can benefit from this book the most?
• Did you find the book thought-provoking?

For fiction, you could ask:

• What did you think of the characters/who was your favorite?
• How did you feel about the writing style?
• Which scene or chapter stuck with you the most?
• What did you think of the ending?
• Did the beginning hook you?
• How does it compare to the film (if there is one)?

Titles to start workplace book clubs with

Here are some titles—on a range of topics—to help you start your workplace book clubs off with a bang:

Big Dress Energy – Shakaila Forbes-Bell

This is one of those books that will always stand out to me because it inspired me to experiment with my outfits.

Reading it made me realize the impact clothes have on mental health and the difference wearing my power colors makes to my mood.

Two months later, I’m still power dressing!

High Performance: Lessons From the Best on Becoming the Best – Jake Humphrey, Damian Hughes

Looking at the worlds of business and sport, this book analyzes the key ingredients of high-performance people and teams.

It features interviews from people like Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff, host of The Diary of a CEO podcast Steven Bartlett, and Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey.

I Will Teach You to be Rich – Ramit Sethi

An unusual way of looking at money management, but in the very best of ways. It’s funny, self-deprecating, and accessible.

No, really.

Atomic Habits – James Clear

A classic for a reason. The tips here work great for neurodivergent folks, too.

The Art of Rest – Claudia Hammond

Worried you’ve got colleagues who are at risk of becoming workaholics? Or don’t understand just how important rest is?

This is just the book they need to read.

I read this at the end of last year when I felt guilty for taking the time out to rest. It made me realize that rest makes me better at what I do and has a huge impact on my mental health.

Never Split the Difference – Chris Voss

Negotiation is a key part of the business world. And that’s exactly what this book teaches.

Written by a former international hostage negotiator for the FBI.

Talk Like Ted – Carmine Gallo

If you want to improve your public speaking skills, or someone you know breaks out in hives at the thought of public speaking, this book is perfect.

It’s all about how to tell the best stories—just like in a Ted Talk.

Or, if you’re in the mood for some fiction…

The Ghost’s Call – K.C. Adams

Okay, I confess: I wrote this one.

But it’s the perfect time of year for a ghost story!

It’s a little bit spooky and seriously sarcastic.

The Flatshare – Beth O’Leary

Romance with a twist: the two characters share a bed, but never meet. It handles mental health in a much more open and honest way than a lot of books.

It’s also been adapted into a TV show.

The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

Absolutely nothing like the TV show or 90s adaptation, but full of spooky, haunting imagery.

This is classic horror in that it isn’t full of jump scares, but it will give you the creeps.

Conclusion

Workplace book clubs are a great way to connect employees and boost their wellbeing.

There’s a book out there for everyone. Sometimes we just need some help finding the right one. Workplace book clubs are the perfect place to do just that!

If you’re looking for a simpler way to organize initiatives like workplace book clubs, you’re in the right place. Workrowd’s all-in-one tool suite makes it easy to launch, manage, and measure employee groups, programs, and events.

You can send out announcements on all channels with a single click, organize all your events and materials in one central hub, and automate data collection and analytics.

Sound useful? Visit us online to learn more, or write us at hello@workrowd.com to find a time to chat.

Only 31% of employers provide important soft skills training to their employees, yet 85% of career success comes from having well-developed soft skills. Talk about a big difference.

92% of talent professionals believe soft skills are just as important—or even more important—than hard skills when it comes to hiring.

So it’s really no surprise that 80% found they’re increasingly key to company success.

Here are some important soft skills to cultivate in your workforce to ensure your business—and your employees—can reach their full potential:

Growth mindset

A growth mindset is all about being open to learning and treating failure as a learning exercise, not a reason to give up.

There are many businesses and people out there who still have a fixed mindset and don’t see opportunities for growth.

But the brain is neuroplastic: it can learn new things, and embrace new things, at any age. You very much can teach an old dog new tricks.

When businesses cultivate growth mindsets, employees aren’t afraid to fail because they know they can learn from their mistakes. As a result, they take more risks—and you can experience bigger rewards.

Listening

Listening is a lot harder than we often think it is. But ultimately, it’s one of the most important soft skills you can cultivate.

The next time you’re in the office or even on public transport, listen to someone else’s conversation.

How often do they interrupt each other?

How often do they actually reply to what the other person has said, rather than saying what they want to say?

Do they change the conversation to be about something they want to talk about instead?

We often underestimate listening, assuming it’s the same thing as having a conversation with someone. But they’re two very different things.

Listening means not interrupting the other person. Not just talking about what you want to talk about. Accepting what the other person says, ideally without judgement.

Then, once they’ve finished saying what they need to say, responding to that without making it about you.

Giving and receiving feedback

We’re not taught communication skills in school, and sometimes we’re not taught them at college. So if we’re not taught strong communication skills at work, where can we learn them?

Giving and receiving feedback can be hard. Even people who are trained to give feedback often focus only on the bad things, which can create an atmosphere of negativity.

When giving feedback, make sure you compliment things as much as you criticize them. That way, the person on the receiving end knows what they’re doing right—and wrong.

Hearing feedback isn’t always easy, but it’s one of the really important soft skills needed to grow as a person—and as an employee. We need to know how to receive comments graciously without getting angry or taking that feedback personally.

Leadership

Leadership skills aren’t just about being able to lead a team. That’s a part of it, but it’s also about being able to set an example.

There will be leaders within a team who’ll guide the rest of the members through their actions, through their encouragement, and through their attitude, rather than direct instructions.

Many successful leaders in sports, business, and everything in between attribute their success not only to their own skills but also to the role models within the team. These role models helped everyone embody the right attitude by setting an example for them to follow.

Modeling productive behaviors is among the important soft skills that don’t require advance training. Anyone can start doing it at any time.

Time management

Whatever barriers you may face, there are ways to ensure that your time management skills are top-notch.

For instance, my mom used to set her clock 10 minutes early so that she left on time for work every day.

You could use calendar reminders, notifications on your phone, or time management apps. You could ask your colleagues to remind you about something important. 

Time management isn’t always easy, but there are ways to make it easier, especially if you embrace technology.

Teamwork

Part of being a great employee is being a great team player. Whatever your business, your employees need to get along and have healthy debates without getting upset or angry with their colleagues. Even if they have conflicting personality traits or communication styles.

This requires everyone to have a strong work ethic, putting business success over their own pride. Effective communication helps here, because they can discuss ideas in depth without letting their feelings get in the way. 

We’re never going to get along with everyone we work with, but teamwork skills ensure employees know and understand how to be a good team member and come to a mutual agreement or compromise. Being able to find common ground is one of the important soft skills you shouldn’t overlook.

Problem-solving skills

Problem solving is hard. To do it efficiently requires creativity and objectivity.

This is why a diverse, modern workplace is so important: the more diverse your workforce is, and the more comfortable people are speaking out, the more likely the team is to come up with a solution to a problem. And the faster they’re likely to do it.

Conclusion

Any soft skill is a transferable skill that can improve employees’ work lives and their personal lives. Providing important soft skills training can boost employee well-being, improve their work day, and elevate how they interact with their colleagues.

Regardless of someone’s long-term career path, important soft skills will improve their emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and communication skills. All things that will help them succeed as people and employees.

Looking to do more to foster these important soft skills in your workforce? Look no further than Workrowd.

With our all-in-one platform, you can easily connect team members to opportunities to build important soft skills through employee groups, programs, and events. Plus, our automated analytics ensure you always know how each initiative is helping you reach your goals.

Sound interesting? Drop by our homepage to learn more, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

Effective leadership is about more than just management skills. That’s why it’s important to invest in developing leadership skills across all levels of your workforce.

Leadership is about communication, a positive company culture, and setting an example to the rest of the team. Someone doesn’t have to be a manager to show any of those things.

83% of businesses feel it’s important to develop leaders at every level. But only 5% have implemented any sort of leadership development across all levels.

For every year they delay that leadership development, they lose 7% of their total annual sales.

About half of employees, meanwhile, don’t feel their company’s leadership is of a high quality.

This doesn’t surprise me. I’ve spoken to people before who’ve told me that they wished their manager had had more leadership training. Unfortunately, it was clear that they hadn’t been given much, if any.

This is a widely-shared sentiment; 69% of millennials feel there’s a lack of leadership development in their workplace.

So, how can you go about developing leadership skills among non-managers?

Let them lead an ERG/committee

Leading a group is a relatively low-commitment way for someone to work on their leadership skills.

They get to support people who have similar interests to them without taking on a managerial role and the responsibilities that come with that.

Employee resource groups, in particular, are a great avenue for developing leadership skills. They can even offer access to executives and mentoring opportunities non-managers might not otherwise have.

Rotate meeting leads

Rotating meeting leads is one of the simplest ways to give someone a taste of leadership. 

That way, they get the chance to try techniques they like. Or they can experiment with something new to see what they’re comfortable with and what resonates with attendees.

Alternatively, you could have different people give updates on different areas.

For instance, in marketing, you could have someone give a content update; another on social media; another on PPC, etc. This gives everyone the chance to speak up in every meeting. They get to share their knowledge, answer questions, and improve their communication skills.

It also shows you value everyone’s voice and experience, helping build a positive and supportive company culture, along with developing leadership skills.

Emphasize the importance of communication skills

Communication is a key element to any positive company culture. It starts with how executives communicate. They should set an example with how they talk to not just their equals, but those below them as well.

To show just how important communication skills are within your business, you could hold writing or speaking workshops. In addition, you could create internal content around communication, or write an internal guide on how to give/receive feedback.

In my experience as an author, editor, and marketer, I’ve found a lot of people have no idea how to give or receive feedback.

They focus too much on the negative, write in a tone that unintentionally comes across as harsh or condescending, or don’t know what to comment on. This makes the content writing process a lot more stressful. 

Getting someone external to write communication guides for you shows employees it’s a priority. That way it can become an important part of your company culture.

Create subject matter experts

The longer an employee has worked for your business, the more company knowledge they’ll have. And the more they can share internally and externally.

Not every long-term employee will want to become a manager. They’re still going to want some sort of career growth to work toward, though. This is where subject matter experts come in.

Subject matter experts specialize in one area. They become the go-to person for anyone internal or external who wants to know more about that thing. 

They could even help you with your marketing and employer branding strategies. By creating content that shows off your company knowledge, they can grow your brand, and grow their thought leadership. This can be a really organic way of developing leadership skills among non-managers.

Mentoring

Mentoring is a way for employees to support their colleagues alongside their current job. 

They get to develop their communication and feedback skills, encouraging others to develop in areas where they’re already an expert. This grows their confidence alongside that of their mentee(s).

There’s even the option of reverse mentoring, where lower level employees mentor individuals who are higher up in the company.

Create a culture of ownership

Everyone fails. When we take responsibility for that failure, it helps us grow as people and improve our skills for next time.

A psychologically safe workplace, with a no-blame culture, and a culture of ownership, empowers employees not to fear making mistakes.  

It helps everyone feel more secure in their roles. As a result, they’ll be more creative and take more risks. They won’t be worried about going against the grain or risking their jobs.

Support personal growth 

Soft skills are just as important as hard skills when it comes to leadership.

You can support employees in growing their soft skills by analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. Then, offer options to work on new things they’d like to learn, whether that’s a course, workshop, or book.

An attitude of personal growth can be contagious. When someone sees the difference it’s made for their colleague, they’ll want to experience that success, too. This means they’ll look for ways to work on themselves, and will be motivated to pursue developing leadership skills.

Support independent thinking

It’s easy to fall into the trap of groupthink. This can lead to employees feeling too afraid to suggest new ideas. It also may inhibit their creativity because they’re not being encouraged to use it.

When you support employees in independent thinking, it allows for more creative decisions and better problem solving. This is because no one is afraid to challenge ideas or suggest something new.

The more you encourage employees to think differently, the more great ideas they’ll come up with. Of course, the more this could then help grow your business.

Practice delegation 

Delegating responsibilities shows employees that you trust them. This grows their confidence in that area and can allow them the opportunity to stretch their skills.

What tasks could you give to employees to take ownership of?

Could it be putting together marketing reports so that marketing managers have more time to spend supporting their teams? 

Or writing guides for new recruits on how to do something? 

If you have subject matter experts, what could they use their skills for?

Project-based work is a great opportunity for developing leadership skills among non-managers.

Developing leadership skills among non-managers matters

Anyone in your business can be a leader. What matters is how well they communicate and set an example for the rest of your team. 

As you can see above, developing leadership skills across different levels of your workforce doesn’t have to be difficult.

If you want to give non-managers more opportunities for developing leadership skills, Workrowd can help. With easy program management tools for everything from ERGs to managers-in-training programs, you can drive engagement and ROI.

Plus, with real-time analytics, you always know what’s actually driving results for employees. Interested in an easier road to developing leadership skills among non-managers? Visit us online or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn how our all-in-one tool suite can supercharge your employee experience.