Lifelong Learning: How Can Your Company Contribute?
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HRThis article is also available in German.
Did you know that children born in recent years may have up to 60 years of working life ahead of them? They certainly won’t retire at 65 – we simply can’t afford that. So, one round of training will certainly not be enough. What can your company do to ensure that employees stay with you as long as possible while maintaining their employability?
What skills will we need in the future?
We don’t yet know for sure. New jobs are currently being created, particularly in connection with AI, and it remains largely unclear which skills – beyond technical expertise – will be required. Looking at the professions that we are likely to still need in the future, these include, for example, nursing and skilled trades. There is broad agreement on this. Many new professions, however, we probably cannot even imagine yet. At the same time, entry-level jobs are disappearing because AI is taking over many of these tasks. Where will young people gain their first work experience? What will we consider valuable experience and competencies for a job in the future?
So far, it has always paid off to focus on so-called transferable skills in order to remain competitive in the labour market in the long term. Inclusion competence and resilience definitely fall into this category and are likely to remain key skills in the future. These can be acquired in a club or association (for example, as a football coach for children with a migration background), in private life (for instance, by caring for relatives with disabilities), or within the company itself.
Inclusion competence and healthy leadership promote retention
The more capable managers are at leading diverse teams, the better the teams will perform – and the more likely team members will want to stay within your organisation. Inclusion skills are therefore essential. What does this mean for managers? One important aspect is dealing with their own thought patterns and prejudices, the so-called (un)conscious biases. The more reflectively managers deal with their own assumptions, the more likely they are to recognise and develop the right talents.
Managers are always role models – not only when it comes to bias. If, for example, they constantly push themselves beyond their health limits, others will follow their example. On the one hand, this is detrimental to both an inclusive corporate culture and everyone’s wellbeing. On the other hand, it prompts many employees – especially from younger generations – to look for employment elsewhere. Healthy leadership is therefore not only in the interest of the individual manager, but also in the interest of the entire organisation.
Building resilience and strengthening strengths benefits everyone
The more turbulent the environment, the more important resilience becomes. This applies not only to managers, but also to specialists in HR or in the areas of equity and diversity. They are often confronted with resistance from different sides, and it helps to be prepared for it. Resistance can take many forms, and responses can be tailored accordingly. My colleagues have developed very practical formats on how to deal with resistance, which provide direct benefits.
On an individual level, it can also be very useful to periodically review one’s own portfolio of tasks. It’s easy to keep taking on “just one more thing”. Job crafting can help you reflect on whether you are truly working to your strengths, or how you can better align your responsibilities with your strengths. If your company offers this opportunity to employees, they will reward you with greater satisfaction and, as a result, are more likely to stay longer.
One size does not fit all
At CCDI, we always tailor our workshops, lectures, and training sessions to your organisation and its specific needs. It's essential that these learning initiatives are linked to your corporate strategy. However, it also depends on how experienced a team or a manager is with diverse teams, or how often they have already engaged with topics of fairness and inclusion.
Together with you, we design the workshops, select appropriate case studies and exercises, and discuss the learning methods. It’s important for us to speak the language of your managers and teams: where is the pain point? How do managers benefit from promoting greater fairness and inclusion? Which challenges do our workshops and training programmes help address?
Transfer into practice is crucial
We all know the situation: the boss attends a training course, comes back full of new ideas and enthusiasm – but what actually sticks in the end? What really gets implemented?
Inclusion nuggets, for example, can help to keep the topic present and relevant. But a well-designed training concept – one that first raises awareness among senior management, then among line managers, and in parallel among employees about their own thought patterns and unconscious biases, while also making key HR processes bias-free and providing learning materials for different situations – can contribute significantly to a more inclusive corporate culture.
Have you ever considered introducing reverse mentoring? This could mean younger employees acting as mentors for experienced managers, or members of minority groups (for example, people of colour) sharing their experiences and discussing what would make them feel more included.
As the saying goes, once is never enough. That’s why it’s important to curate your training and workshops with a long-term perspective and clear impact goals. We are happy to support you in doing so.
