Getting involved in Learning at Work Week | Let’s Talk Talent

Fostering a growth mindset through learning at work

We get it, you probably have a thousand things to do, from advertising for and filling key roles in the midst of a skills shortage to providing staff with enough opportunities for them to feel challenged, stretched, motivated and energised (and don’t get enticed to move elsewhere). In the midst of all this, why should you add organising a week-long event with a programme full of activities to promote Learning and Development (L&D) to your never-ending to-do list? Should learning at work really be at the top of your agenda? In this current skills context, absolutely.

L&D is an important attraction and retention lever that can help you achieve cut through in a competitive talent market. L&D has now become part of the way your total reward package is built, and you motivate and engage your people to drive high performance across your business.

Quite simply, learning should be an important part of your ecosystem. And Learning at Work Week 2023 (LaWW 2023) is a great opportunity to make it so. The annual event has been specifically set up to encourage businesses worldwide to foster a culture of learning and for their staff to find new ways to integrate learning into their daily routine, so you don’t have to do it alone.

By taking part in LAWW 2023, you can benefit from several additional resources put at your disposal by its many participating learning partners, giving you more bang for your buck when it comes to promoting learning at work. And if you’re still not convinced you should drop your current list of priorities to focus on learning at work, keep on reading.

What is learning at work?

Most organisations do have Talent Management (TM) strategies, each with a varying degree of focus on L&D resources. But supporting both learning (gaining new knowledge or skills, changing a behaviour or adopting a new habit) and development (mostly done on the job) can be a stretch for many.

Learning at Work Week is about helping you promote the learning side of things, which is often neglected by both businesses and staff due to lack of time, lack of budget or lack of clear general direction. However, whilst it is a smaller part of the L&D equation (formal learning represents around 10%, whilst on the job development constitutes the bulk of it at 90%), it is still a crucial component.

Learning at work: fueling a growth mindset

To learn a new skill or gain new knowledge is a key prerequisite for intrinsic motivation amongst staff, and can really raise overall satisfaction levels. It’s what makes coming to work exciting, as it gives your people new ways to achieve their goals and burst through their current ceilings. It allows employees to challenge and stretch themselves, and unlock their full potential by acquiring new tools they didn’t have before, which in turn has an impact on personal and organisational performance. This is what we call a growth mindset.

Is a growth mindset really more for startups and tech companies? “Not at all,” says Jo. “A growth mindset is essential for any organisation to survive and thrive.” It opens you up to innovation and growth, as well as drives and fuels people’s overall motivation and energy levels. Growth is directly linked to intrinsic motivation and drives high performance by enabling staff to reach their potential.

In addition, a growth culture constitutes a major recruitment and retention lever for any business, in any industry. It will positively impact your internal culture, become part of your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and reverberate through every stage of your employee experience. Which will ultimately mean higher staff attraction and retention rates.

Learning at work as an attraction and retention tool

We all know how difficult it is to both recruit and keep hold of people at the moment. The Great Resignation phenomenon has not yet run its course, with people all around the world re-evaluating their priorities and opting to leave their current jobs for new roles, new careers, new working schedules…

Candidates considering a move will take a number of factors into account when weighing the pros and cons of a potential move, and the benefits package offered by organisations is no longer judged based on salary alone. Candidates looking for the right opportunity do consider learning and career development as part of their total pay and rewards package and those actively seeking to grow their skill set have a plethora of resources available within the modern learning landscape. They understand that access to those resources has a sizable monetary value.

So whether you offer mentoring, learning courses, coaching or other materials, LAWW is a fantastic time to remind your talent pool of the resources at their disposal, the courses that can help them achieve their professional goals and how they can go about activating those development pathways.

Resources not courses

So hurrah, just open up the floodgates and allow people to access any course they may wish to take in order to foster innovation and personal development? Again, not quite. At Let’s Talk Talent, we have a saying: resources, not courses. This means that what you offer staff needs to add value and be aligned with both your business’ long-term objectives, and your employees’ personal goals.

There also need to be defined career pathways available, as too much noise can be paralysing and generate less than effective results. Use the many resources offered by Campaign for Learning (founders of Learning at Work Week) to ensure your promotion efforts are focused on helping staff find what they need amongst the range of learning materials available to them.

Learning at Work Week is a great opportunity to showcase what you have on offer to the right audience, in a way that will guide staff towards the next logical step on their learning journey. It’s also about reminding everyone within your organisation that learning is, and should remain, an intrinsic component of your internal DNA and that there are ways to make it part of their daily routine.

LAWW 2023 will take place from May 15th to 21st, and we sincerely hope you’ll join the festivities. But if the suggested format or timeframe doesn’t work for you, don’t worry. Just do what works for your specific business, and people, to promote learning at work and contribute to fostering the kind of growth mindset that everyone can be proud of.

In the meantime, there are lots of free resources available to you from some of Learning at Work Week’s great partners, so check out