The business world is changing fast. With rapid advances in technology and shifting consumer behavior, lots of jobs are being created that didn’t exist 10 years ago. A recent PBS article cited an Institute for the Future study predicting that “eighty-five percent of the jobs that today’s students will do in 2030 don’t exist yet.”¹

Now, this particular article focused on what colleges are doing to adapt to a quickly changing workplace, but it made me think about what this means for employers. It’s no longer just a matter of having to train new graduates so they’ll be work ready; even seasoned employees are now in a position where they must constantly learn new skills. Moving forward, employers will have to play an increasingly vital role in training and developing their workforce.

We’ve known for a long time that when it’s done well, training highly benefits companies and employees alike. For one thing, it helps organizations create the kind of culture that attracts and retains great talent, which is especially important when the economy is booming and good candidates are scarce. It also helps organizations keep up with industry changes, stay ahead of competitors, get employees engaged and motivated, and more.

And, of course, it’s good for the employees themselves. It helps them get better and better at what they do and advance in their company and career.

So yes, having a solid development system in place is more crucial than it has ever been. But it’s one thing to offer training to your employees. It’s another thing for employees to embrace it. Too often, they don’t take advantage of learning and development resources already available.

Most leaders know that employees can be cynical about development. Sometimes they feel they’re too busy to take time off work for training. Other times, they believe (for various reasons) that the training they’ve had in the past wasn’t effective or meaningful.

We need to be able to teach in a way that makes employees want to learn. It’s no longer enough just to get people “up to speed” when we hire them. Development is an ongoing part of the job, and employees need to accept and welcome that reality. The more eager they are to learn, the more successful the development efforts will be.

The good news is that most people really do care about professional development. For example, a recent Gallup survey found that 87 percent of Millennials said professional or career growth and development are extremely important to them.

And it’s not just Millennials. In Pensacola, we at Studer Community Institute find that our monthly leadership development workshops and small business roundtables are incredibly well received and well attended by professionals of all ages.

Our workshop series is focused on helping entrepreneurs and small business leaders master foundational skills like hiring, firing, employee engagement, creating revenue streams, process improvement, marketing, and so forth.

We also offer small business roundtables in which owners get together with a facilitator and talk about the problems they’re facing. These sessions are done in small groups (generally four to eight people) and are led by a good facilitator. Like the workshops, the roundtables are about training and development but are more intense and focused.

The success of our workshops and roundtables shows that people truly are motivated to learn—when they believe that the training is valuable to them. We are fortunate to be able to offer the kind of training people value and find the right experts to lead it.

Your company can do the same. When you get your training and development right, you’ll build a culture that attracts the best and brightest and build the kind of foundation that makes you a high-performing organization.

Here are a few tips:

• Supervisors should see themselves as chief development officers. Think about your own work experiences. Who played a key part in your own development? It was most likely your supervisor. This is why strong leader development is a vital investment for a company. The more skilled the supervisor, the better they will be at helping others develop to the best of their abilities. This includes understanding the psychology of change and growth and how best to lead people through those times when it gets difficult.
• Make sure everyone understands that learning a new skill causes discomfort. When we ask employees (or anyone) to learn a new skill we are asking them to move through several psychological states: from being comfortable to being unsettled and, eventually, to a state of unconscious competence where they can almost practice the new skill in their sleep. Here I am referring to a theory that was developed at Gordon Training International by employee Noel Burch in the 1970s. The four stages of competence are:

1. Unconscious incompetence. The person does not know what they don’t know.
2. Conscious incompetence. The individual recognizes their shortcomings and the value of learning the skill. (This is where they feel the most discomfort.)
3. Conscious competence. The person now knows the steps needed for success; however, they are still in that learning phase.
4. Unconscious competence. The behavior is now so embedded in the person it becomes second nature. This leads to the ability to multitask. The behavior is so ingrained that the skill is performed even while doing another task.

• To manage any kind of change, including the learning of new skills, supervisors need to understand these phases. It’s the only way to help employees move through that “unsettled feeling” and do and say the right things to keep them on track and forging ahead.
• Keep training as close as possible to the job people really do every day. One reason our Pensacola workshops are so successful is that we think hard about relevancy. For example, if a business has only three employees, hiring is probably not the most important thing in the world to them—but creating revenue streams is. When people can clearly see how training makes their lives easier, they’ll want to learn.
• Connect to the why. People always want to know what’s in it for them. Why do they need to learn this new skill? How will it benefit them personally? How will it make their work more meaningful? How will it benefit the company? Share this information as many times and in as many different ways as it takes until they see the value. This will help them keep going as they travel through the difficult process of learning something new.
• Train across many areas. Functional skills matter, but don’t neglect leadership and relationship-building skills. “Soft” skills and emotional intelligence are more crucial than they’ve ever been. In a world where Artificial Intelligence is taking over many of the jobs humans used to do, people at all levels need to be good at collaborating, communicating, and innovating—things computers can’t do.
• Be as flexible as you can. Everyone is different, and therefore we all learn differently. Not everyone absorbs and processes information the same way. Some people need lots of one-on-one coaching while others are more self-sufficient. Some do fine in a classroom setting, while others like online learning they can complete on their own time.
• Of course, it’s not always possible to tailor each person’s learning to their individual preferences, but do it when you can. In general, try not to rely too heavily on online courses as not everyone is wired to learn well that way. Consider lecture formats, books, online videos, hands-on training with feedback, and other methods.
• Practice what you preach. As often as possible, take the training with employees. This sends the signal that what they’re learning matters to you and the company.
• Encourage more-skilled employees to help with training. Most people love sharing their knowledge and experience. And other employees will appreciate learning from peers—it helps them see the relevancy of what they’re hearing.
• Don’t just tell them. Show them. Theory and instruction are great, but people learn best when they see a skill in action or—even better—have a chance to practice it right away. Role-playing “labs” can be really effective, especially when training in leadership skills. In general, make training as interactive as possible. This will help the concept “stick.”
• Don’t overwhelm people. Train on one skill at a time and break training up into manageable chunks. Long, intensive training sessions crammed full of content just don’t work. People can’t process that much information at once. Keep training sessions as short and focused as you can, and people are more likely to retain and practice what they’ve learned. This also ensures they’ll be able to get their “real” work done.
• Set goals and give employees regular feedback on how they’re applying what they’re learning. This shows them that the training is meaningful to the company. And when they know they’re being “graded” and held accountable, they’ll take what they’re learning more seriously. They’ll see it as part of their job, not something that takes them away from it.
• Hold progress meetings with employees (not just annual reviews) and ask about training and development. I have found that employees do best when they get regular feedback from their supervisor. One solution that seems to work well is to hold quarterly reviews with each employee. While these meetings cover a lot of territory (see Chapter 38), they should definitely include questions about training and development. You can ask employees how they feel about the training they’ve received, what skills they’d like to master in the near future, and so forth.
• Reward and recognize progress. The whole idea is for people to improve, so when you see someone making progress, praise that person. Publicly recognize them. This encourages more of the same.

As the business world gets more complex, we must all get better and better at learning. The better your company is at training and developing—and the more enthusiastic your employees are about learning new skills—the more prosperous your company will be. Make it a priority, invest some time and thought into it, and do everything you can to get people on board. Your efforts will pay off for years to come.