Learning culture is a crucial factor in personnel development. But how can you promote learning culture in the company? An often underestimated factor is the influence of leaders: Discover now with examples why learning culture begins at the top and how you can promote learning culture "top down"!

Without learning culture, any further training will fail

Especially now, the term learning culture is frequently mentioned in many HR departments. More remote work, more self-directed learning, more online learning. This naturally impacts the learning culture within the company. We at blink.it see this every day in Customer Success: Our corporate clients want to implement a new tool for further education and ask themselves how employees can also learn in a self-directed manner with it. Because even the best tool in the world is no self-starter: The learning culture in the company must be right!

Therefore, this article deals with the question of why the influence of the management is so enormously important – and explains with examples how you can influence this in personnel development. You can find other articles on learning culture here:

• How is learning culture visible in companies?

• The key to successful learning culture in companies

• Microlearning Challenges Part 4: Developing a new learning culture

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Learning Culture in Companies

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Why learning culture begins from the top

That learning culture is important has now been recognized by many personnel developers. But a common mistake is made: The assumption that learning culture mostly concerns the employees themselves – the learners. And even in this phrasing lies a second mistake: Not only employees should learn! Further education concerns the entire company, and leaders should set a good example.

A survey by kursfinder.de has shown that, on one hand, the learning culture in many companies is improvable: Only six of the ten surveyed companies would even attribute a learning culture to their organization. Moreover, leaders are described as the biggest brake factors: Whether due to budget cuts or because the management does not recognize the importance of further education.

Our tip for personnel developers who want to promote the learning culture in their company: Think "top down" instead of "bottom up"!

The following questions help promote learning culture "top down":

• How well is the leader informed about further education in the company?

• How does the leader assess your learning culture in the company?

• To what extent does this assessment differ from the assessment of the employees?

• How present is the leader for the learners during and before further training?

• How does the leader further educate themselves and thus set a good example?

The 3 Levels of Learning Culture

The following graphic shows the three most important levels of learning culture: Leaders serve as role models and should also be aware of this. Trainers and HR personnel provide touchpoints between learners and enjoyable technology.

And the employees themselves are indeed decisive for the learning culture but take a more passive influence on it: If they perceive learning as a personal benefit, that is a very positive indicator of a good learning culture in the company.

Diagram by blink.it: Leaders positively influence the learning success of employees by being role models and giving employees the feeling that learning is very welcome in the company.

Examples: How leaders can influence the learning culture

So much for the theory. But how can you as an HR manager influence the leaders so that they can have an impact on the learning success of the employees? Let's look at three examples of deficient learning culture – and analyze how you can improve the learning culture in each case:

1. Example: When learning culture remains unspoken

The example: Hans Niegall works in a young, dynamic company. He knows that learning is generally appreciated here. For a project, he needs better knowledge in a programming language. So he uses some free time to watch YouTube videos on it. However, when his boss unexpectedly stands behind him, he is startled: What does the boss think now? That he is not working but rather surfing YouTube?

The analysis: Actually, the company in this example seems to have a positive learning culture! But even in this case, the employee feels uncomfortable being "caught" learning. The reason: how learning can look has never been a topic.

The solution: In this specific case, a short conversation between the employee and the boss helps to resolve the situation. As an HR manager, you can act preventively here by conducting regular surveys on how both employees and leaders understand learning. And communicate wherever there are differences to be seen.

2. Example: When further education is not a priority for leaders

The example: Robert Karlson is a leader in a large company. He works far more than 40 hours a week. Although he generally considers further education to be sensible, he rarely participates: unfortunately, he has no time and always has more important things to do.

The analysis: Such leaders certainly exist in abundance, and although there is no ill will or intent behind it, Robert Karlson's behavior affects the learning culture in the company: Employees orient themselves to him and intuitively or consciously prioritize other tasks higher than further education.

The solution: As an HR manager, you can draw the leader's attention to how important their role model function is in this case. This way, Robert Karlson realizes that his own further education is not only helpful to him personally but also positively impacts the entire learning culture of the company. The message to the employees should be: Look, further education is important to all of us, and we take the time for it!

3. Example: When the leader is invisible

The example: Laura Schneider participates in an online course on conflict management and is initially very enthusiastic. The online course is enjoyable, and she learns quite a bit that helps her in everyday life. Weeks go by, and her motivation continues to decrease. There is simply too much to do, and by now, she doesn’t even remember why she started the further education in the first place. Eventually, she stops engaging with it altogether.

The analysis: What is missing in this example is external motivation: Although Laura Schneider is initially motivated and enjoys the process, the course feels more like a hobby. The legitimacy is at least felt to be missing, and soon the motivation to complete the course is gone.

The solution: Here you can leverage two levers as an HR manager to improve the learning culture: On one hand, you can create incentives to complete the e-learning – for example, in the form of rewards and awards. On the other hand, you can ask the leader to provide external legitimacy: A short video has proven valuable here. In it, the leader briefly explains what the course is about and why it is meaningful. You integrate this video at the beginning of the online course and create a lot of transparency with little effort.

How can you promote learning culture in your company? Take the quick check now and answer the following question: At which three points can leaders influence the learning success of employees? Note down what comes to mind first and then think about how you can actively improve these points!

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