Employee development can be a great tool for employers; it can aid in employee retention and recruiting efforts and can help employees feel more satisfied with their job.
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That said, one obstacle to effective employee development programs is cost. There are a lot of ways to improve and expand employee development options, but almost all involve some sort of cost investment. Luckily, there are options that can minimize both financial cost and time costs involved with employee training. One such option is self-service learning.
What Is Self-Service Learning?
As the name implies, self-service learning is any type of learning that is done independently, using whatever means of finding information that the learner has available. For example, it might include an employee utilizing freely available content in his or her employer’s learning management system to learn more about a new product offering from the organization. Or, it might be an HR professional looking up information online about a new regulation about to go into effect.
Self-service learning involves being proactive and finding information when the learner is ready and available to learn it.
Employers can utilize the idea of self-service learning by making materials readily and easily available to employees and by incorporating such materials and learning outcomes into existing employee development programs. This type of learning can take many forms and can be quite complementary to other types of employee development, including more formal training sessions.
Benefits of Providing Self-Service Learning Options
While self-service learning is not usually a stand-alone method for a full employee development program, it can be an integral part and has a lot of benefits for both employers and employees, such as:
- The cost of developing and maintaining the employee learning materials can be minimized, as they can be kept in a central location and accessed digitally on an as-needed basis. In other words, these learning materials require minimal maintenance once the system housing them is created and set up. This system can easily incorporate materials from outside sources too—further minimizing maintenance and costs.
- Employees can opt to use self-service learning options whenever these suit their schedule without the need to disrupt other work activities or coordinate with others.
- Employees can go at their own pace (and, as such, this type of learning may also be referred to as self-paced learning). This means that employees can skip ahead to the pieces of material that are most useful to them and not waste time going over things they already know, unlike a classroom training option. Alternatively, employees can opt to dive deeper into any topic on which they need further instruction or more in-depth knowledge.
- If incorporated into an employer’s existing professional development program, self-taught skills can be a way for employees to increase job knowledge and perhaps even advance job roles over time.
- Employers can provide multiple means of learning a topic, such as videos, online tutorials, quizzes, reading materials, recorded lectures, and more, thus making it easier for employees to choose the type of material they learn best from or are most comfortable with.
- Employees may be more invested in the learning outcomes when they feel a sense of control and ownership over the process, potentially increasing retention of the new materials.
Potential Pitfalls of Self-Service Learning
There are also some potential pitfalls to keep in mind:
- Self-service means self-motivated. In other words, if there’s no requirement to undertake the training by a specific deadline, it may never happen without some other incentive.
- Not all individuals are keen to take on new topics without the assistance of an expert conducting the training. It may not be a good fit for all employees.
- Self-service learning is not suitable for all types of learning and is best used as a supplement.
- People don’t always know where to begin when the process is entirely self-directed. That may lead to some time spent learning some things that are ultimately not useful to the individual.
- When individuals are tasked with looking for their own learning materials, they could also utilize materials that are either factually incorrect or somehow misleading or not applicable. This is of particular concern if employees are encouraged to utilize information not created internally.
- Most self-learning today is available online, which means it may be less accessible to employees who are uncomfortable utilizing new systems and online programs.
Does your organization incorporate self-service learning options into your employee development options?