Similar organizations should always be on the edge when it is about HR learning and development activities.

Becoming open to learning is not enough, human resource managers often have to take additional steps to push employees for learning and development.

In fact, HR learning and development activities should not only include the starting of every employee tenure, it should be a constant process. We all need to keep learning and keep improving because that is how we reach our goals and that is how the organization will reach its bigger goal as a whole.

For this to happen, every organization needs a continuous HR learning and development activities. And the best way to improve and enhance your learning and development process is to scrutinize your competitors.

Identify Your Competitors

For analyzing competitor activities, you need to first find out who these competitors are. So, the initial step is to make a list of at least 6 to 10 competitors. You can look for companies with similar services as yours. When you have this list ready, you can move ahead with other HR learning and development activities.

Detect Development Needs

Another important thing to analyze before diving in is to recognize what type of developing needs your organization has. This is because your competitor may have different requirements and they will be following learning and development activities according to that. Hence, closely analyze every team and if required, see where they are lacking behind. The moment you find a weak spot, note it down and move ahead.

For instance, your graphics team may be amazing, but they need a little training on how to interact with clients. You can pick up these weak points and use it to your advantage.

Dealing with Limited Resources

There are only three ways of dealing with resource shortage:

1. Hiring new employees even if that proves costly
2. Sulking about it and overloading yourself with more work
3. Utilizing current resources by giving them a chance to explore

While 1^st and 2^nd will never work in your favor, 3^rd might. Many organizations have already started involving existing employees in various work functions and areas.

How this helps in HR learning and development?

When you give your existing employees a chance to involve in other projects, you offer them the ability to explore, learn, and develop.

It solves your problem as well as gives your employees a chance to improve and explore new horizons.

Competitive Courses

Other than necessary needs of the company, you can offer a competitive course to your employees. These don’t have to be professional courses, but access to online material will be enough.

Some companies even form a knowledge base which contains study materials and video lessons for various courses. This knowledge base helps them engage employees over time.

With this, it is also important to note that you actually need to give your employees a chance to study these courses. If you expect them to work full hours, then go home and study. We have rarely seen anyone do that. Invest in a competitive course but figure out a schedule that actually gives them time for learning and studying these courses.

Collaborative Sessions

It is understood that small and medium organizations may not be able to organize or arrange courses all the time. In such a situation, you can arrange collaborative sessions so that your team can teach your team. Let’s say, a content writer wants to gain knowledge of graphics, then a graphic designer can help the content writer. This way everyone gets to explore new opportunities.

Most startups now work in this fashion. They ask an existing employee to train another employee for a work they like. This way they utilize their resources to the maximum.

Guiding Mentor

Learning and development don’t always have to be about learning something new, it also includes becoming better at what you already do. And for this, most people need a mentor to tell them what they are doing wrong. Encourage experts in your organization to guide those who are new in the field.

Conclusion

HR learning and development does not have to be a costly affair or a task that needs a lot of time. It can be as simple as lunchtime chatting. Moreover, learning and development are essential for employee growth. With the help of learning and development activities, you will be able to keep your employees motivated and engaged.