Summary

Key Drivers

Many SMEs invest in workplace-based learning programs in order to:

• Enhance employee competencies: Where leaders recognize that performance is driven by individuals' skills and knowledge, they are prompted to invest in learning initiatives to develop them. Many SMEs aim to enhance technical and customer service skills in order to boost productivity and achieve customer satisfaction goals. Some organizations believe that fostering a workplace culture of learning is an indirect but necessary step towards developing the technical skills the organization requires.

• Support organizational change: Some SMEs introduce learning initiatives in order to facilitate the adaptation of revised organizational practices, prepare employees for structural, cultural or product change, or foster certain values in the workplace culture. Other SMEs may use learning as a strategy to overcome challenges, such as a diverse workforce.

• Maintain workforce attraction, retention, and succession planning goals: SMEs are often driven to offer work-related learning by a tight labour market that causes significant labour and skills shortages, which threaten SMEs' ability to compete. In a tight labour market, some SMEs view their learning program as a means of accessing the qualified labour they need to thrive though workforce development, attraction, retention, and succession planning.

Challenges

Although the 45 SMEs profiled for this research have all enjoyed success with their work-related learning programs, almost all experienced various challenges in implementing, sustaining, and/or benefitting from these programs. In analyzing these examples, three main challenges were identified:

• resource requirements, including time, money and supporting materials;
• low levels of employee engagement; and
• inadequate essential skills to provide a foundation for learning.


Keys to Success

There is no single technique, practice, or strategy to making work-related learning a success. Effective learning programs take a variety of forms as they respond to the unique needs of businesses. Nevertheless, the 45 SMEs in Canada and other countries found that, generally speaking, they experienced success by:

• assessing learning needs and defining needed outcomes;
• aligning learner needs with organizational goals;
• implementing learning in a phased approach;
• taking a longer-term approach;
• building flexibility into learning initiatives;
• making the learning applicable to the work environment;
• leveraging learning champions;
• forging partnerships to support learning;
• recognizing learning achievements;
• supporting informal learning;
• sharing learning programs with other organizations.

 

Background

Conducted by the Conference Board of Canada for the Centre for Workplace Skills, Investing in Skills: Effective Work-related Learning in SMEs offers insights on effective work-related learning programs implemented in 45 Canadian and international small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This report is designed to help Canada‘s million-strong SMEs develop their own work-related learning programs and make good business decisions about work-related training investments.

The report highlights elements of the effective learning programs and includes a summary matrix that compares the 45 SMEs in terms of geographic region, size, sector, learning inputs, and learning outcomes.


Case Studies

The 45 learning programs studied for this report offer much to learn with respect to work-related learning. Many Canadian SMEs can look to the experiences of these learning programs as examples to follow as they hone their competitive edges.

Each case study is profiled and categorized in the Best Practices Database.


Project Advisory Committee

The focus of this work was established through consultation with an Advisory Committee made up of members of the Centre's Network of Experts.

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