Enable Learning
- Management must enable daily learning within their teams
- Informal Learning
- Compliance with Collective Agreement
- What Kind of Learning
Management must enable daily learning within their teams
Activities which align to this include, though are not limited to
- Ensuring learning materials are available to staff
- Staff is guaranteed at least 1h per day to be spent learning or improving how they work
- Improving how they worked is defined as any activity to increase the efficiency of their work or existing processes
- Conduct blameless postmortems following incidents
- Learning includes learning from and about others from within your organisation. Encourage collaboration between groups, especially those adjacent in the value stream (dzone.com/articles/value-stream-mapping-and-devops)
- For example, setup biweekly meetings with other groups within your department (including other branches and non-technical groups)
This approach aligns with section 18.04, part a, item 3, of the Computer Systems Agreement Between the Treasury Board and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada which reads,
carry out research in the employee’s field of specialization not specifically related to his assigned work projects when, in the opinion of the Employer, such research is needed to enable the employee to fill his present role more adequately;
Informal Learning
There’s 2 main categories of employee learning:
- Formal Training (e.g. classroom)
- Informal Learning
Formal training being a mature and well-recognized practice, ESDC will need to focus on understanding and encouraging informal learning among employees. Especially as recent estimates suggest (broken link to Accelerating_On-the-Job-Learning_-_White_Paper.pdf) that between 70% to 80% of job-related knowledge isn’t learned in formal training but rather informally on-the-job. We observe that formal training hasn’t been designed to provide employees with the “on demand” learning they need to maintain current knowledge and proficiency.
Informal learning is any learning that is not formal learning or non-formal learning, such as self-directed learning or learning from experience. […] it has no set objective in terms of learning outcomes and is never intentional from the learner’s standpoint. […] this includes heuristic language building, socialization, enculturation, and play. Source: Wikipedia
One important characteristic of informal learning is that it does not follow a specified curriculum and is not often professionally organized. It rather originates accidentally, sporadically, in association with certain occasions, from changing practical requirements. Also, it has been associated with increased individual, organizational, and market performance.
Some examples of informal learning:
- Self-selected books or Self-study programs;
- Incidental skills practise;
- Having a coach or mentor;
- Seeking advice from peers; and
- Participation in communities of practice.
Compliance with Collective Agreement
18.03 Attendance at conferences, conventions and courses
Career development refers to an activity which is, in the opinion of the Employer, likely to be of assistance to the employee in furthering career development and to the organization in achieving its goals. The following activities shall be deemed to be part of career development:
- i. a course given by the Employer;
- ii. a course offered by a recognized academic institution;
- iii. a seminar, convention or study session in a specialized field directly related to the employee’s work.
To assist the department in promoting a modern environment which enables a culture of learning to flourish within Employment Services and Development Canada and the Government of Canada at large the following assumption (Option 1) should be explicitly validated or Option 2 should be added as an item under section a under 18.03 Attendance at conferences, conventions and courses
Option 1
Interpret study session to include self directed study
Option 2
Propose a 4th line entry explicitly outlining that career development includes time given by the employer for the employee to dedicate a specific amount of time to continuous learning and continuous improvement within their domain.
What Kind of Learning
As automation becomes ever more present and widespread organizations, especially ESDC who is unique concerned with employment, should promote educational activities that provide individuals with skills needed going forward into the future. We recommend the following skill sets as being the most imperative to enable ESDC to deliver quality and modern services to Canadian citizens
- Ethics
- Adaptability
- Curiosity
The emphasis on these types of skills is echoed by many, for example, HBR Ascend published The 4 Essential Skills to Future-Proof Your Career they suggest the following skills
- Curiosity
- Confidence
- Creative Thinking
- People Skills
Further, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF)(weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf) they predict that the demand for Social Skills will be the fastest growing. Further, they list key skills for 2020 as:
- Creativity
- Active Learning
- Time Management
- Negotiation
- Programming
As for recommended strategies, they list…
- Invest in reskilling current employees
- Support mobility and job rotation
- Collaborate, educational institutions
- Offer apprenticeships
- Attract foreign talent
- Target female talent
- Hire more short-term workers
- Target minorities’ talent
Lastly, another article written by [HBR Ascend - What will smart mean in the AI age?] (No longer available) reads
“What is needed is a new definition of being smart, one that promotes higher levels of human thinking and emotional engagement. The new smart will be determined not by what or how you know but by the quality of your thinking, listening, relating, collaborating, and learning.”
In conclusion, ESDC should focus on both hiring and training with an aim to increase the soft skills among its employees. More research need be, and will be, conducted as to the literature commenting how best an organization is to foster the development of soft skills. All of the categories have benefits, though specific attention should be paid to the promotion of curiosity, adaptability, and ethics. These have been chosen as they align well with industry best practices for modern IT organizations, which promote experimentation (curiosity + creative thinking) and adaptability (or agility).