Short on Time Summary

Learning and development directly influence retention. 55% of workers think they can achieve their goals faster by changing companies. Offer ongoing reskilling and establish a learning culture to lower the costs and disruptions associated with recruitment. Viva Learning brings training into the flow of work so your people can learn when it’s convenient.

Skill development is a priority for workers

“Job hopping” is a growing trend as workers prioritise their professional development over company loyalty. People believe their skills will develop faster if they leave their current job. However, Microsoft revealed that 76% of people would prefer to stay if there were training opportunities. Average tenure at companies with a strong L&D strategy is 5 years compared to 3 years in companies without reskilling opportunities.

Filling vacancies is time-consuming and expensive. Invest in the people already working for you to retain your skilled workers and avoid creating a skills gap. Low employee turnover is essential for stability and growth.

PwC found that 77% of executives believe retention will be a key driving factor for profit growth in the next year. In a jobseeker’s market, you need to understand what employees expect from you. Continuous skills development and progression opportunities are top of their list. Employees are leveraging the labour shortage to demand more commitment to their personal growth.

What are the benefits of reskilling?

Reskilling is a vital part of talent management. Encourage your people to expand their skills by providing the necessary training to complete fulfilling, engaging work. Support their accomplishments and demonstrate trust in their abilities.

Assess skills regularly, not just at the hiring stage. During employee reviews, ensure you check-in with their motivations now and for the future. They may be interested to progress into a different role than they were hired. People are happy to make a lateral move if there are learning opportunities. Reskilling also increases job security. If a role becomes redundant, employees can be trained in other functions and remain with the business.

Digital fluency is increasingly important in all roles as technology rapidly evolves. Are your employees equipped with the right skills to succeed? Upskilling in this area should be a priority. Train your people to use tools that boost productivity and innovation. For example, training in Power BI will empower your people to understand and analyse their data, enhancing problem-solving in non-technical roles. Your business will benefit from new perspectives and insights.

Establish a learning culture

Learning should be a core element of each employee’s tasks. Training helps increase employee motivation, loyalty and adds value to the business through a diverse range of skills. Make it as easy as possible for them to include it into their routine by utilising Viva Learning.

Viva Learning is part of the Viva employee engagement service. It exists as a standalone app but also integrates with Teams chats to bring learning into the employee’s every day. Once you have the technology, you need a strategy to make sure learning is easy to pick up.

Creating an effective strategy begins with understanding what your people need to meet their expectations. Learning is most meaningful when it targets individual needs. Ensure training is relevant to their career goals and up-to-date within the field. Utilise Viva Learning to create tailored learning opportunities which will re-energise your people, prevent boredom and increase morale.

L&D initiatives need to move beyond HR to be successful. Managers throughout the organisation should be actively involved in shaping personalised learning pathways. Make it a regular discussion topic in 1-1 meetings and performance reviews to establish a learning culture that engages everyone.

Learn in the flow of work

Navigating multiple separate applications is often a barrier to participating in training. Viva Learning compiles learning tools from multiple providers in a single location, accessible from Teams and your intranet. It fully integrates with LinkedIn Learning for a seamless learning experience, with single sign-on authentication and syncing across both platforms.

Use it for upskilling, onboarding, routine skills maintenance, and more. Training courses cover a diverse range of topics and skills. You’re not limited by what your organisation has time to create.

View content recommendations based on previous activity and search for resources relevant to your interests and goals. Viva lets you control your learning journey to progress towards your career advancement goals. Self-guided learning taps into intrinsic motivation and significantly increases engagement.

Managers can also easily assign curated learning paths and monitor progress. Add the Viva Learning tab to your Teams channels and suggest courses which are relevant to the team to encourage collective improvement. Employees learning together are more motivated to complete the course.

Viva Learning is instrumental in embedding a strong learning culture into regular routines which will encourage your top talent to stay.

Combine with other Viva experiences

Microsoft Viva makes it easy to incorporate learning into the workday. Receive a daily briefing email customised to your productivity needs so you can block off time for learning right from your inbox. Answers in Viva matches experts with employee questions to reinforce the power of collaborative learning. With Viva you can change the perception that training is a last-minute task or a large undertaking.

Employee retention now goes beyond a competitive salary. People will pursue external opportunities more aligned with their goals if their role feels stagnant. But most people would stay with their current company if there were internal growth opportunities. Increase employee satisfaction and drive business growth by committing to learning and development.

Book a call with one of our expert consultants to learn more about the potential of Viva Learning. Or follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more advice about enhancing your employee experience.