HR Thursday | January 19th, 2012 - In today's highly competitive and rapidly changing workforce, self-directed learning is an excellent tool that creates a win-win for the organization, the supervisor and the employee. First, it exemplifies a workplace culture that values continual learning. Next, it provides an opportunity for a supervisor and employee to create a partnership that supports on-going workplace learning. Finally, self-directed learning is supported by an essential classroom skill - self reflection.

According to Bouchard (Self-directed Learning in Organizational Settings, self-directed learning becomes even more powerful when it's systematic, or when we decide:
  1. What areas of knowledge and skills we need to gain in order to get something done (our learning needs and goals)
  2. How we learn best (learning styles and needs)
  3. How we will gain the areas of knowledge and skills (our learning objectives and activities)
  4. How we will know that we've gained the areas of knowledge and skills (learning evaluation)

With self-directed learning programs, the key is collaboration and accountability. Self-directed learning programs:

  • Are more effective in development because learning accommodates employees' learning styles and objectives
  • Save substantial training costs because learners learn to help themselves and each other with practical and timely materials
  • Achieve increased employee effectiveness in their jobs as they learn to learn from their own work experiences and actually apply their learning in their places of work

The bottom line is increased employee efficacy as they learn and enhance their skills. When done right, self-directed learning is indeed a win-win for all.