In Praise of Employee Led Learning

Company leaders know they’re under pressure to upskill their workforces. As for employees, they clearly want to learn new skills. Recent research (and my personal experience as a recruiter) shows that L&D opportunities are a driving factor in employee happiness and retention.

But those learning opportunities don’t always have to be the sole responsibility of the employer. There’s another highly effective strategy to pay attention to, and that’s employee-led learning.

Employee-led learning leans into giving employees options and support so they can claim agency over their learning trajectory within an organization. This might lead an employee to make a horizontal move after dabbling in learning from another team, for instance.

Employee-led learning has a distinct advantage over traditional “one-size-fits-all” L&D programs because it’s individualized and, therefore, far more likely to be engaging and compelling to each unique learner.

Every employee is an individual with their own plans, hopes, and aspirations. Empowering them to take the reins of their own learning initiatives honors this reality.