E-learning and LMS blog articles

Harnessing the true potential of a workforce can only be achieved within a supportive environment in which employees are encouraged to explore new development opportunities. Employers can achieve this by encouraging open dialogue, fostering a sense of collaboration, encouraging teamwork, and implementing a comprehensive L&D strategy supported by L&D technology. In this blog, we’ll explore some effective strategies that you can put in place to help your employees achieve their personal objectives with the help of e-learning tools.

What are personal objectives?

Most people have aspirations and goals in life that they are working towards and for many, some of these will be career related. These goals and objectives help us to align our focus and drive our motivation so it’s important for employers to encourage employees to develop and pursue them.

Personal goals, unlike professional goals, are not always related to an employee’s career and they may encompass aspects such as hobbies, personal development, and soft skills development. It’s worth noting however that whilst professional and personal objectives may be distinct, they often overlap or influence one another so it’s beneficial for employers to help employees achieve both.

Encouraging employees to achieve their personal objectives can yield a number of results for employers such as creating a well-rounded highly skilled workforce, improving job satisfaction and boosting employee motivation. Let’s explore how this can be accomplished.

Communication is key

In order to help employees realise their goals and achieve their personal objectives, employers must first understand what these are. It’s essential for employers to create plenty of opportunities for employees to share their aspirations and communicate any ideas with managers, HR team members or L&D team members.

Employees can discuss their personal objectives with managers through one-to-one meetings and formal development chats. Employers may wish to ask questions to help them understand whether personal objectives may align with employee career development and wider company objectives. For example, if an employee’s personal objective is to develop their time management, this could have an impact on their job performance, helping them to improve their productivity in the workplace.

What is performance management? Read our ultimate guide here.

Set goals with formal procedures

Once employees have shared their aspirations and personal objectives with employers, now is the time to formally take note of what has been discussed. This may include creating a document with a list of employee objectives and goals.

To make this process more effective, employers can use digital platforms to create detailed objectives with measurable, quantifiable ways to monitor progress. For example, using a learning management system (LMS) such as Totara Learn means employers can take advantage of the Goals feature which offers all the functionality required to create personal objectives using a flexible, tiered approach. With Totara Goals, employers can create goals and goal frameworks that are measured against a customisable set of levels that represent levels of achievement known as goal scales.

Create a personal development plan for employees to follow

Perhaps the most results-driven and effective way to help employees achieve their personal objectives is to create a tailor-made, comprehensive personal development plan (PDP). A PDP is a framework that outlines development opportunities for employees which align with their personal objectives, setting out ways to achieve these and creating clear markers for progression and improvement.

PDPs require self-evaluation, asking employees to identify their strengths and weaknesses, along with areas for improvement that will likely link with their personal objectives. If their personal objectives are related to skills development, they may find it useful to gain a decent understanding of their current proficiency levels – this can be achieved with the help of e-learning assessments which can be used to identify skills gaps and gauge skill levels.

The best way to create, deliver and manage a PDP is to use an e-learning solution such as a talent experience platform (TXP). With a TXP, employers can create competency frameworks that align with personal objectives, create personalised learning paths using a wealth of e-learning content and resources, monitor progress using automated reporting tools and much more. With a TXP-driven PDP, employees are provided with all the tools and support they need to gain new skills, improve their knowledge base and work towards achieving personal objectives.

Discover how to create a PDP with a TXP by reading our ultimate guide.

Mentorship

Activities related to achieving personal objectives needn’t be kept between employees and managers - recruiting other team members can be effective too. It can be beneficial to encourage employees to share their personal objectives with their colleagues, creating a community in which employees champion and encourage one another by sharing their own ideas, knowledge, and skills. This can be achieved by facilitating workplace group sessions or with online tools such as forums and workspaces in an e-learning platform such as a learning experience platform (LXP).

When gaining insights into employee objectives, managers may wish to pair them with another employee who has followed a similar career path or has achieved similar objectives in the past. Here, employers can use mentorship practices to not only support employee development but also encourage teamwork and create stronger employee relationships.

Looking for a powerful LXP? Discover Totara Engage.

Review progress and provide feedback

Although personal development and objectives are not necessarily part of mandatory workplace L&D training, it’s important to help employees stay on track and encourage them to hold themselves accountable for their progress. When using a platform such as a TXP, this is easy to carry out as features such as reporting tools and automated progress indicators provide instant insights into employee development.

More importantly, it’s essential to celebrate achievements when employees have reached milestones during their personal development progress. These achievements can be identified based on markers such as e-learning Goals or completing a skills training exercise within a set timeframe. If employees aren’t making progress with their development and reaching goals, managers should take the opportunity to identify what may be hindering their progress during one-to-one feedback sessions and offer support to help get them back on track.

Discover the power of e-learning reporting tools - visit our functionality page.

Experience the benefits of having a highly skilled workforce with the help of an e-learning platform

To provide employees with the best opportunity to achieve their personal objectives, incorporating the above strategies into your wider L&D strategy is essential and so is adopting e-learning solutions that can elevate employee development. Whether it’s an LMS, LXP or TXP, we have the perfect solution to help your organisation maximise the potential of your workforce. Explore our product pages to find out more about our solutions or take our free two-minute survey to discover which platform would best suit your L&D needs.