There are a number of substantial reasons for implementing self-directed learning in the corporate world.
First, as adults employees know best what they need to learn, whether it’s for their current job or overall career development. Adults engage in learning opportunities in order to help them resolve issues and problems they face in their daily lives. The issues and problems may be professional or work-related, personal and/or leisure in nature. As a result, adults have an immediate need to apply what they have learned. In terms of the workplace, this immediacy of application forces employees to have a defined, purposeful focus to their learning. They are, first and foremost, interested in learning only what they need to learn to do a better job. Learning irrelevant things gets in their way. We can all identify with this. How many of us have sat through a seminar or workshop only to find that a small percentage of the content covered was really applicable to our job and met our immediate learning needs? The rest of the seminar or workshop was of little or no relevance, a waste of time and productivity.
Second, in the face of today’s continually changing workplace demands (e.g., information boom, changing technology, etc.) employees must drive their own learning not just to remain marketable, but to remain employed as valuable contributors to the organization. We all should become a “learning person.”
“To remain a contributor you must grow and develop. You must become a ‘learning person’ just as the company or institution becomes a ‘learning organization.’ While we will provide opportunities, you must be in charge of your own development.” (bold added) Working the Shadow Side, Gerald Egan.
The essence of self-directed learning is the idea that employees are in charge of their own development, i.e., a learning person.
Third, businesses cannot assume the task of ensuring the learning of all their employees. It is neither practical nor financially feasible. Aside from the gargantuan scope of such a task, at some point it becomes financially impractical for companies of any size. Beyond providing basic, fundamental training (e.g., new hire training that acclimates and acculturates new employees to the organization and perhaps some basic organizational and/industry methodology, safety and product training) companies should not mandate training but rather support and encourage employees in learning only what they need to learn to do their job better or to get promoted.
Training everyone also becomes impractical because people have different deficiencies or voids in their knowledge and skill base even if they have the same background and training. These differences reflect our unique nature as individuals; our differences in interests, talents, abilities, aptitudes, etc. The more knowledgeable employees become about a specific topic, these differences become more unique. As a result, it is presumptuous to even think a business can provide structured learning to meet all the learning needs of all its employees. Self-directed learning, on the other hand, enables businesses to effectively support the critical self-development of all individual employees.
Fourth, timeliness is critical in business today. The need to change quickly to respond to new market trends, to stay abreast of technological advances, to respond to changing customer needs and demands all require that new learning be acquired quickly and efficiently. Timely learning cannot be accomplished with scheduled instructor-led training that can have long lead times of a year or more for design and development. Employees need to acquire new knowledge/skills in the short-term if they are to be effective. Self-directed learning enables a timely learning response as needed.
Fifth, productivity is also critical in today’s workplace. One of the biggest objections to classroom training is the need to keep employees on the job to keep them productive. Classroom training takes them away from their jobs reducing their productivity. Self-directed learning, however, doesn’t necessarily impact productivity. By its very nature, it can occur after working hours or during slow periods thereby NOT affecting productivity. Indeed, in some cases of creative self-directed learning design, the learner may, in fact, be very productive, e.g., serving as a member of a sanctioned task force while learning new skills.
