Invest in yourself: The pleasure and pay back of ongoing learning

Most of us recognise that ongoing learning empowers everyone to be more successful in their role or help progress along a different career direction. Even though we know this to be true, we often put it on the back burner as we get absorbed in our day to day workload.  

Post pandemic, we have accelerated at lightening speed to be working in a cloud-first environment: now more than ever is the time to upskill and invest in our learning. This requires updated skills whatever industry or role you work in. Learning can keep us fresh and interested. Did you know life-long learning can also make you happier? A LinkedIn survey reveals that employees who dedicate time at work learning are 47% less likely to be stressed! 

I am a firm believer in ongoing learning and personally find that setting aside time is helpful to ensure it is part of a planned diary. To manage my own learning, I use the ‘interspaces’ and do my sessions in micro slots if I can. Additionally, I find that listening to podcasts and reading keeps me focused and sharp. It adds a new dynamic as they are different ways to learn. I tend to focus my reading on technical skilling, leadership, driving change and health/nutrition. My team regularly shares book recommendations, which we will discuss altogether at our quarterly offsites and build into our community summits. 

In organizations, many employees are looking at their skills and experience and are keen to upskill for the future. Gartner advises that executive leaders can harness modern just-in-time remote microlearning to enable the upskilling opportunities they identify as supporting their COVID-19 recovery business objectives. Deloitte’s COVID-19’s report confirms that a whopping 37% of UK jobs, 47% of US jobs, and 77% of Chinese jobs are at risk of displacement via automation. McKinsey reports that by 2030, as many as 375 million workers - roughly 14 percent of the global workforce - may need to switch occupational categories as digitization, automation, and advances in artificial intelligence disrupt the world of work.  

Microsoft expects 25 million people to access its learning materials from mid-2020. Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella recently said “we’re bringing together resources from Microsoft inclusive of LinkedIn and GitHub to reimagine how people learn and apply new skills — and help 25 million people facing unemployment due to COVID-19 prepare for the jobs of the future.”  So how can you retrain for your career and prepare for the future particularly in such uncertain times? 

5 Top tips to get you started! 

• Define your priorities 

Retraining is personal: to you, your role and what you want to achieve. You may want to upskill for your existing role, acquire new skills to delve into another position or there could be new requirements in which you will need to be proficient. 

• Make time to learn 

Employees often hesitate to spend working time on training. It can be considered a secondary activity. However, with a large proportion of employees working remotely, there are significant online resources to choose from. We can all  choose a time to study that works best for us. 

• Get the support of your manager 

The manager should be everyone’s best partner to discuss skilling plans with. They should encourage continued learning and reinforce that it’s okay to take time to learn new skills. The best managers are coaches who will help you to apply new skills and coach you to improve. In addition, leaders can ensure that managers connect employees with opportunities to learn and set aside designated development days or scheduled times for training modules. 

• Plan for the future 

Figure out what skills will be in demand to support your career now and in future years. Digital skills are important for most industries and supply chain is more important than ever with most organisations trading online. McKinsey reports that the reskilling challenge will be particularly acute in operationally intensive sectors, such as manufacturing, transportation, and retail, and operations-aligned occupations, such as maintenance, claims processing, and warehouse order picking but all industries need to prepare for the future.  

• Blend your training modalities  

Variety is the spice of life! Training can sometimes seem laborious so find different ways to keep you interested. If possible, blend online with face to face and podcasts or videos. Seek a mentor and/or a buddy to help steer any queries you may have and offer an independent perspective. Engage in social learning, like chat boards or online interactive learning events. They provide a community for employees to share experiences and to support and teach each other. Social learning offers a support system to gain confidence in new skills, which in turn helps to deepen learning.  

The future 

The pandemic challenged our capacity to adapt as we all learnt to lead in the unknown. Whilst many people are accomplished in their career and have a wealth of knowledge under their belt, it is important to continue to allow time for gaining new skills. This has ignited a lot of desire for embracing change. Satya Nadella Microsoft CEO said “Be passionate and bold. Always keep learning. You stop doing useful things if you don’t learn.” Continued investment in your own learning can open up a new world of possibilities in these times of change.  Invest in yourself!