Where do you start when it comes to developing yourself or your employees? Many people have no idea, and as a result, this critically important aspect is often neglected. By focusing on a ‘learning theme’ within your organisation every quarter, you can motivate employees to focus on different learning topics. Here’s how you can implement this in your business.
What exactly is a quarterly theme?
The purpose of a quarterly theme is to guide your employees towards self-development. A new theme is worked on every three months throughout the organisation, and is always chosen based on the needs of your business and your staff. These must therefore be properly assessed before any learning takes place.
During the quarter, all kinds of online and offline learning activities around the chosen theme take place. In this way, you increase the transfer of what has been learned (the theory) into practice. Some popular examples of themes include collaboration, communication, sustainability and leadership.
How to organise your quarterly theme
It’s helpful if at least one HR or Learning and Development representative remains a permanent fixture on all the themes. Then, have two or three employees from other teams join, who will pass on their place to other colleagues in the next quarterly theme. In this way, all employees can participate in the themes, and by constantly involving people from different departments you’ll have a lot more variety, innovation and fun.
Activities
During each theme, ensure a good mix of online and offline activities, as well as individual and team assignments. This way you have the best chance to make sure that everyone learns something, while the variety will keep your employees engaged and focused.
- Online activities: Think ahead about suitable training courses on your learning management system that relate to your theme, and store them together in a learning line. Encourage your staff to follow courses from this online offering, for example, by linking rewards or by earning points with every certificate they obtain.
- Offline activities: Now that life is almost back to normal, include some physical workshops into your learning methodology. Involve colleagues in this and give them the responsibility to organise something themselves. Place these activities in the agenda of your online academy or LMS (such as SkillsTown!) In this way, all activities of your quarterly theme can be found in one place.
- Teams: A lot of online training is done on your own, so it’s imperative to stimulate co-operation and team work as well. Depending on your theme, you can choose to create teams or have departments do assignments together, such as we-learnings which you’ll find on SkillsTown’s employee experience platform (EXP). Brainstorming assignments or competition-type activities are also nice ideas, and help to stimulate employees and drive a healthy competitive spirit in the business as well.
Communication is important
Get your staff excited from the get-go with a dynamic opening video about your chosen theme. Communicate everything clearly so that employees know what to expect from the beginning. In addition, it’s advisable to communicate about the quarterly theme once every two weeks. In this way it remains ‘top of mind’ and you can keep your employees engaged. Think especially about which communication style and form suits your staff – here are some examples of things you can share:
- Number of training courses followed (online and physical)
- Most followed/popular online training courses
- Reactions/feedback from participants on activities
- Standings/placings of any team assignments
- Reminders for deadlines and registrations for physical events
- Photos
Quarterly close
It’s important to close your quarterly theme on a high so that employees can reflect on what they thought and what they learned. Let people share and reflect on their experiences. A fun way to do this is by rolling a dice – every number someone throws comes with a different question. Some examples include: which assignment did you think worked out best, which did you find the most difficult, if you could change anything, what would you do differently? You can use these insights to organise your next quarterly theme better.
Tip! Choose a quarterly ‘chart topper’ at the end of each quarter. This is the individual who stands out from the rest and has contributed in a special way, for example by participating the most, by leading a successful team project, etc. Reward them for their dedication and time with a challenge cup, gift voucher or dinner out with their partner.
At SkillsTown, we have over 250 online courses that you can make use of as part of our EXP. We’d love to chat to you and set up a free demo of our platform.
