When you value learning, you can thrive
Businesses that value learning are in a better position to survive and thrive.
All employees benefit from continuing to learn:
- Employees can do their job and adapt to change better.
- Employees feel more engaged and motivated.
- Employees feel valued and are less likely to leave.
- It can be easier to delegate and get the results you want.
- You’ll have the option to fill job vacancies with an existing worker, saving time and money on recruitment.
- You become an attractive employer when you need to hire.
- Knowledge and skills stay in the business when people leave.
Coaching and mentoring
Employees can learn skills and develop knowledge through coaching and mentoring on the job.
A coaching mindset
You can help your employees learn by:
- asking them why they think something worked or didn’t
- showing team members how to give constructive feedback and coach colleagues in their areas they’re good at
- encouraging employees to share knowledge.
Tell stories
Encourage your employees to share stories informally – for example, during breaks or when closing for the day. This includes new people too, as they can bring new ideas.
Share your experiences too.
Make it ok to get things wrong
Make sure your employees know it’s ok to learn from mistakes. Learning from real life and familiar experiences can be easier to relate to than hypothetical situations from workshops or courses.
Solve problems together
Team up to find solutions and new ideas. This will help because:
- staff will learn by observing different thought processes and hearing others’ experiences
- it can strengthen working relationships
- mixing different viewpoints often leads to stronger ideas.
Job shadowing
This can be useful for employees who:
- want to grow into another role
- would benefit from understanding what’s involved in another job or task.
Buddy system
Pair people of different ages and experiences. Be clear what you want each person to get out of it. Try to pair people with compatible personality types.
Involve employees
Talk about learning and feedback openly and often, through:
- team talks
- giving people a chance to speak just with you or a trusted colleague.
Make sure you:
- make time to answer questions
- give and receive feedback
- discuss learning goals.
Formal training
You may need some outside expertise to upskill your employees.
Options include the following:
- Online courses and webinars — a cost-effective way to introduce new ideas and approaches. Useful when you need to train staff across different locations.
- Off-the-shelf training courses — one-size-fits-all courses run by training companies.
- Tailored training — a trainer adapts a course to suit your business needs.
- Conferences, seminars and workshops.
- Courses run by polytechnics or other tertiary education providers.
- Literacy training — government-funded courses to help with reading, numeracy and communication.
Help with basic numeracy and literacy
Around half of New Zealand’s working-age population struggles with mathematics, and many struggle with reading. This can affect productivity and the health and safety of the workforce.
You can use Skills Highway to help your staff’s skills in reading, maths, and communication.
Skills Highway is an online government resource that either:
- gives you tools and resources to help you develop your own in-house training scheme
- puts you in touch with a training provider.
Funding for non-domestic migrant learners in work-based learning
Some vocational qualifications, programmes and micro-credentials are eligible for subsidies for non-domestic learners.
The goal of this scheme is to achieve a higher skilled migrant workforce, with the right skill mix to support New Zealand’s economy.
The targeted exemption process only applies to the work-based and assessment and verification modes of delivery. Work-based learning refers to programmes where a learner is training in a workplace, or doing ‘on the job’ learning.
Work and Income support
New employees may need financial assistance to develop the skills to do their job. Work and Income can help with this.
They can:
- cover part of an employee’s wage for up to a year while they learn
- subsidise the cost of their training (depending on what it is).
For you to qualify:
- the position must be permanent, and for at least 30 hours work a week (although you may still qualify for the subsidy if the position is part-time)
- you must pay market wages for the job
- you must not have dismissed anyone else to employ the person.
If you qualify, you’ll:
- pay your employee’s wages like you normally would, and keep wage records in case Work and Income needs to refer to them
- send Work and Income a completed claim form and wage records
- get the subsidy direct credited into your business bank account
- need to cover the balance of the employee’s wages, PAYE, GST, ACC levies, holiday pay, and health and safety requirements.
Work and Income employer line: 0800 778 008
Learning and developing policy or plan
Having a policy and plan for learning and development in writing:
- shows employees you are committed to their development
- helps them understand what’s available, what’s expected, and how they will be supported.
Make sure your employees know about your policy or plan, and that you put them into action.
Your learning and development policy might include:
- types of learning you encourage – for example job shadowing, mentoring, diplomas, webinars, workshops
- how to raise something staff want or need
- how you will support employees to learn and use new skills and knowledge
- how any costs or time off work will be handled
- how learning will support people’s roles
- expectations on how knowledge will be shared with the team.
Equal opportunities
Be fair when deciding who gets learning opportunities, especially if it’s to prepare someone for a new role or to handle poor performance.
Offer the same learning opportunities to new employees and current employees who move into new roles.
Check if stereotypes affect your decisions. The Human Rights Act says you can’t make employment decisions based on age, race, gender or other personal characteristics. All employees benefit from continuing to learn, regardless of age, background and experience.
How people learn
Different people learn in different ways.
Ask your employees how they best take in and retain information.
Common styles include:
- learning by doing
- looking at infographics or watching videos
- hearing new information
- reading and taking notes
- getting information in chunks over time.
Help your employees learn by:
- giving them the chance to ask questions, and taking the time to answer them
- using real situations to help people learn new skills, systems or knowledge
- encouraging them to share examples from their work
- explore how to solve problems or complete tasks together.
Check in to see how confident employees feel with new information or skills, remembering that people can be embarrassed to admit they haven’t grasped something.
Common mistakes
Keep in mind these common mistakes when training your employees:
- Assuming learning just means formal courses and qualifications – learning on the job can be just as valuable.
- Thinking time off billable work will be bad for business – your business will benefit from employees learning new skills and sharing them with each other.
- Only investing in people early in their career – people of all ages and life stages benefit from ongoing learning.
- Not letting employees have a say in what they learn.
- Not letting employees have a say in how they prefer to learn.
- Believing learning is only about employees getting better at their jobs – offering a variety of opportunities also makes you a desirable employer, and it can help you keep hold of valued workers and attract strong candidates when hiring.
Learn more about