Members may download one copy of our sample forms and templates for your personal use within your organization. Please note that all such forms and policies should be reviewed by your legal counsel for compliance with applicable law, and should be modified to suit your organization’s culture, industry, and practices. Neither members nor non-members may reproduce such samples in any other way (e.g., to republish in a book or use for a commercial purpose) without SHRM’s permission. To request permission for specific items, click on the “reuse permissions” button on the page where you find the item.

Page Content Some leaders pay lip service to learning but then insist that employees do the same things in the same way without questioning anything. No matter how much they value learning in the abstract and how much they spend to promote it, leaders are not putting their money where their mouth is in order to create an environment that produces curious information seekers.

As a result, leaders are missing out on the competitive advantage realized by SAP, Apple, American Express and Bridgewater Associates. These companies have at least two things in common: They’re all standouts in their respective sectors, and they nurture top-to-bottom learning cultures. The research linking learning to business success is compelling. “Companies that learn fastest and adapt well to changing environments perform the best over time,” says Edward Hess, a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and author of Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization (Columbia Business School Publishing, 2014).

​Some jobs are disappearing due to the increasing use of technology and automation, and the positions that are emerging require quick thinking, creativity, and high social and emotional intelligence, Hess says, making the ability to learn more important than ever. Companies with nimble learners can react quickly to disruptions, adapt to meet the demands of a changing business climate, and harness a wealth of ideas for new products, services and processes.

“The single biggest driver of business impact is the strength of an organization’s learning culture,” says Josh Bersin, principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte in Oakland, Calif., citing findings from a 2010 Bersin & Associates research report, High-Impact Learning Culture: The 40 Best Practices for Creating an Empowered Enterprise. Yet research also suggests that creating a learning culture is easier said than done. Fortunately, like most things, it can be taught.



Learning Gaps In 2013, U.S. organizations spent an average of $1,208 per employee on training and development. Small organizations (those with fewer than 500 employees) spent, on average, $1,888 per employee, and midsize organizations (500 to 9,999 employees) spent $838, the same amount as large organizations (10,000 or more employees), according to the Association for Talent Development. In the aggregate, that’s more than $162 billion annually. Yet despite that huge investment, there are lingering questions about whether organizations are getting their money’s worth and if the learning cultures they espouse are real or illusory. Worldwide, organizations spend at least 11 percent more on training per person than is cost-effective, according to Thomas Handcock, senior director at the Corporate Executive Board Co. (CEB) in London. That’s time employees spend away from their core jobs engaged in learning that’s not germane to the business. Moreover, only around 1 in 10 companies have a true learning culture, defined as a culture that supports an open mindset, an independent quest for knowledge, and shared learning directed toward the mission and goals of the organization, according to CEB research. And only 20 percent of employees demonstrate effective learning behaviors. So, in terms of investment and return, there seems to be a clear disconnect. According to Jennifer Dearborn, senior vice president and chief learning officer at SAP America Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., CEOs are not applying the same rigorous analysis to learning as they do to other business functions.





Nontraditional Learning ​Corporate learning isn’t what it used to be, when people would squeeze in a class or seminar during their slow period on the job. Increasingly, it is becoming part of the very fabric of work. In a 2014 CEB survey of almost 34,000 employees at all levels, respondents reported spending nearly 40 percent of their total work time learning. Seventy-nine percent said their work-related learning came from sources outside the learning and development function, an 11 percent increase since 2012.

Societal and technological advances are playing a large role in shaping how people learn. While learning and development professionals used to have a near-monopoly on employee education, workers today have much more control over their own development. That’s largely due to the ubiquity of online courses, webinars and social networks. Given a choice, people generally prefer to learn online at their own pace. This preference for independent learning cuts across age groups from Millennials to Baby Boomers, says Dani Johnson, research manager, organizational learning, at Bersin by Deloitte in Oakland, Calif. So, learning is clearly taking place, but are employees learning what they need to in order to excel at the company? And does your organization support their efforts? To drive culture change, it may be time for HR to reassess its role in learning and development. That role no longer calls just for providing courses and seminars periodically; it involves supporting active and independent learning all the time.



​ ​Calculating ROI Measuring the return on investment for your learning and development programs is critical to business success, says Jennifer Dearborn, senior vice president and chief learning officer at SAP. A good place to start is with your sales team. Dearborn recommends that HR professionals find out what the metrics dashboard measures for the sales team (e.g., close rate, number of products bundled into sales, net new customers and repeat customers). Then: Home in on metrics that highlight poor results.

Dig into the data to discover what differentiates the team’s top performers.

Crunch the data available on relationship management, human resource information, learning management and talent management systems to learn everything you can about the top achievers.

Map out the stages of the sales cycle to discover how team members do their job and what top performers do that’s unique.

Compile the data and pinpoint indicators of success.

Create training interventions to develop skills identified with success.

Set up a control group to scientifically validate the outcomes of your intervention. At SAP, Dearborn seeks out similar sales groups operating in different territories and compares their performance with a team that has received training to show its impact. “I measure every training or learning intervention I undertake against a control group that doesn’t experience the intervention,” she says. If a training or learning intervention yields positive results, she rolls it out companywide. Finding control groups is easy at SAP, which has more than 70,000 employees worldwide. It may be more challenging at smaller companies—but it’s still worth the effort.





What Is a Learning Culture? A learning culture consists of a community of workers instilled with a “growth mindset.” People not only want to learn and apply what they’ve learned to help their organization, they also feel compelled to share their knowledge with others. At New York Life Insurance Co. in New York City, for instance, supporting a learning culture means “trying to make each moment about learning, about establishing the intention to learn in every interaction, every relationship and every chance to lead,” says Michael Molinaro, vice president of talent management. At SAP, a dedication to business results is the catalyst for the company’s learning culture. “You want people who are curious, committed and who understand their role in the bigger picture of your company,” Dearborn says. American Express, based in New York City, measures the impact of learning interventions on pre- and post-individual and organizational change. The impact of learning interventions on some business functions, such as sales, is easier to measure because of the subsequent direct impact on business results. The 62,800-employee company also looks at its employee pulse survey results to validate the impact of its learning strategy on employee retention and satisfaction. “High pulse rates lead to high retention,” says David Clark, senior vice president and chief learning officer. “When employees are consistently learning, they are happy.” Bersin by Deloitte offers clients a metrics dashboard that includes data on time-to-market, market share, customer satisfaction and learning agility. Molinaro says New York Life’s most important measure is a biannual engagement survey fielded to its 10,000 employees, which tells company leaders what impact the organization’s learning agenda is having on corporate culture and business goals. At companies large and small, leaders set the tone. “You could put 3.5 percent of your budget into training or give your employees 80 hours of classes every year, yet it might mean nothing,” says Kim Ruyle, president of Inventive Talent Consulting LLC in Coral Gables, Fla. “If you are developing learning programs because the HR police are on your back or for compliance reasons, that’s not what learning cultures are about. In a learning culture, you’ll find people learning because they want to.”



Unlocking Learning To develop a learning culture, begin by recognizing the key constraints that prevent people from reaching their full potential as learners, says author and University of Virginia business professor Edward Hess. Develop policies and processes that address obstacles that inhibit learning, including: Ego. We all want to be liked and perceived favorably by others. As a result, we defend, deny and deflect what we think may cause us to lose face or to look uninformed or not particularly smart. Fear. We seek to avoid the embarrassment of failure. Complacency. When we learn something, we tend to retreat to automatic pilot mode, resisting new challenges and ideas.

