Personalized employee experience - 10 learning paths for employees

We are increasingly talking about personalization and employee experience in human resources management and operations.

According to l'Ordre des CRHA, “the employee experience is measured by the global and real experience of the employee in contact with the company at each moment before, during or after their employment relationship.” Continuous training is no exception!

Each employee has different learning needs, both upon joining the company and after 15 years of service.

We asked Marianne Lemay, founder and creative coach at Kolegz, to share her best advice to improve your employee experience!

How to create a personalized employee experience?

There are several approaches to determining who should take which course, and this comes with various levels of complexity. Here are a few examples:

• Method 1 - By department and/or by workstation. This method requires that all employees who occupy the same functions are enrolled in the same professional development. 
• Method 2 - By career objective. This approach focuses on the desire of employees to develop to grow within the organization. We could therefore enroll staff from different departments in a team management course, for example.
• Method 3 - By employee journey. This method requires that employees are enrolled individually in the appropriate courses according to their situation. It could be, for example, hiring, promoting in a new position or going on long-term leave. This option requires greater knowledge of your staff, but it is the one that offers a more unique and personalized experience. It takes into consideration the changing needs and opportunities of an employee during their advancement.

Of course, you can mix these approaches or use others! The important thing is to understand the needs of your teams to offer the solutions that will have the most impact.

Marianne Lemay adds:

“To determine the training needs of employees, you would benefit from questioning yourself about the type of courses that would enhance the performance of your teams, but also keep your employees engaged. 

By aligning the ambitions of individuals with the strategic objectives of the company, everyone wins!"

What are the advantages of learning pathways?

Learning paths are used to group several courses and to divide them into steps. This implies that you can create a dependency between each course, so those of step 1 must be completed before those of step 2.

Creating paths decreases micromanagement since employees can follow the courses they've been assigned to in the right order and by themselves.

Creating training courses 

Each path has a theme based on the method you have chosen to create an employee experience in your company.

Learning pathways are high in demand today because of their:

• Accessibility
• Flexibility
• Effectiveness

Here is a list of 10 suggested training paths for employers and employees

These are inspired by method presented below, where we focus above all on employee development. They represent key moments in the progression of an employee within his professional and personal journey.

Use these suggestions to personalize and improve the employee experience in your organization without racking your brain! 

1. Discovering the company

Do you receive a lot of resumes and unsolicited applications? Have you ever thought about training your potential recruits? Recruitment is an activity that can be time-consuming and very expensive. When you receive new applications that you think are a good match for the company, invite them to your platform!

You can enroll them in a learning path that presents the company, the team, the organizational culture and some employee testimonials. It is also an opportunity to offer some pre-selection tests to have a pool of qualified candidates.

2. Onboarding

No need to wait until your new talents' first day of work to start the onboarding process.

After signing the contract, already send an invitation to a learning path designed to introduce the company. Break the content into steps and start with the high-level information before moving on to more specific details.

For Marianne Lemay, having the recruits discovering the company before their arrival has several advantages.

“Courses designed for onboarding allow you to leave a positive impression at the very beginning of the employee experience. Remember, you only have one chance to make a great first impression. 

According to a study conducted by Ceridian, one in three employees is looking for a new job after 6 months in their new position: it's worth investing time in your training so that it faithfully represents your corporate culture!"

3. Job start

Once an employee has joined their team, the longest and intense learning process begins.

At this point, we want to provide our talent with all the necessary tools to do their job efficiently and safely. There will then be a lot of theory and coaching practice until they master their different tasks.

These learning paths should focus on the employee's position or department.

4. Skill development

Several reasons can justify investing in the skill development of your employees, such as:

• Their career objectives
• Their specialization in the team
• Their performance gap
• Progress in their field (new technology, methodology, etc.)

By creating personalized employee experience for the needs that come up most often, you can standardize the development process. From one department to another, employees wanting to acquire new leadership skills may do so when the time is right.

5. Organizational change

Training and communication are the best way to support your team in change.

Regardless of the nature of the change, creating a learning path is a great strategy to ease the transition. Offer your team courses on the different things that have changed and personalize the paths for each of the affected departments.

Marianne Lemay suggests:

"When an organizational change is coming, why not invite your employees to co-create courses on this subject?" 

The best way to get people to buy into change is to be part of it. Determine who your key players are so that they become ambassadors for this new project."

6. Promotion and recognition

An employee has just obtained a new managerial position within the company.

This is a great opportunity to celebrate, but also to support this person.

Offer to this new manager a learning path to coach them in their new functions and suggest relevant courses. Take the opportunity to slip in a word of congratulations!

7. Internal coaching

Although much of the training can often be done virtually, many tasks require the supervision of a senior employee.

To help them teach better, enroll your experienced employees in a learning path that covers the basics of coaching.

They will be able to share their knowledge even better with the new generation!

8. Internal mobility

An employee may occupy the same position but in a new team. If technical training is not necessary, human support is essential.

Prepare for these nomads a learning path focused on interpersonal skills and adaptation in this new environment.

For employees who could be on secondment outside the usual territory, add guides and tips on their new region! These little things often make all the difference.

9. Absences or long-term leaves

Returning to work after a long period of absence is often a source of stress for our employees.

To support them in this process, it's always good to report on new developments:

• Changes in the work team
• Changes in procedures
• Programs implemented
• Etc.

A learning path is a good way to share this information while summarizing some key training. The main objective is to give the employee the tools to make their return to work peaceful and hassle-free.

10. Definitive departure

A learning path for an employee who is leaving us… what for?

The idea here is to set up a departure process that allows the employee to transfer knowledge. In this path, we, therefore, want to identify the important points to document before terminating employment.

It's also a great opportunity to thank the employee for their service and to appreciate the timeshare. The employer brand is about maintaining a healthy relationship even with your former teammates!

Marianne Lemay concludes by adding:

“A turnover rate of 0% is not necessarily synonymous with a healthy corporate culture. 

Since the new generations stay on average for a shorter period in the same company, we should no longer try to retain them at all costs. Rather, it is advisable to ensure that their employee experience is pleasant from start to finish. 

For employees at the end of their careers, most seek to bequeath their knowledge and leave a positive mark to inspire the youngest. Offering them to train new ones using technology will end their journey in a memorable way."

Your turn now!

Of course, all these ideas are only suggestions, now you can decide on what applies in your organization or not.

Perhaps, in your case, welcoming your employees is the only part of the journey that you can turn into a learning path. It's still a great place to start testing and experimenting.

What better way to personalize and improve the employee experience!