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If learning and development professionals were granted three wishes, they might ask for time, time, and more time. It’s one of the profession’s biggest pain points: finding the time for employees to learn.

And the time crunch isn’t something they’re imagining. Research shows that during the average 40-hour workweek, employees have only 24 minutes to learn. Deadlines and pressing work matters often bump learning time aside. But employees want to grow and develop on the job. They want more chances to learn. They want the skills needed to future-proof their careers.

Two types of workplace learning

As humans, we’re constantly learning as we go through our days. In the workplace, that generally means two types of learning: 

1. Dedicated learning time 

This is time specifically set aside for learning. It usually involves a virtual, hybrid, or in-person training curated by a company’s L&D team or an outside learning provider. 

2. Learning in the flow of work 

This is a term coined by industry analyst Josh Bersin to describe learning opportunities that are integrated into the workday. It could include a stretch assignment, microlearning to figure out a skill quickly, or turning to a search engine to understand a business term.

Why learning time matters 

Employees say that opportunities to learn and grow are the No. 1 driver of a great work culture.

Skills are changing rapidly, and employees who feel that their skills aren’t being used well in their current job are 10x more likely to be hunting for a job. But when they’re given the opportunity to learn the skills needed to stay relevant, they’re more likely to stay. What’s more, companies that offer ongoing skill development are 7.2x more likely to engage and retain their employees.

Employees who spend time learning at work are also less likely to feel stressed and more likely to feel productive and successful.

How to create more dedicated time for learning at work

1. Schedule learning time into the calendar.

This may seem obvious, but blocking out time on employees’ calendars is an effective way to ensure they have time to learn, especially if the whole company makes the same commitment. It could be one hour a month, or one hour a quarter. But scheduling it into the company calendar makes it official, like a meeting an employee can’t miss. 

2. Make learning relevant by tying it to career goals.

According to the LinkedIn 2022 Workplace Learning Report, employees’ top three motivations for learning were to help them stay up-to-date in their field; to address their personal interests and career goals; and to help them get another job internally or to land a promotion. So, when learning is directly related to a career goal — and employees understand the answer to “What’s in it for me?” — they’re more likely to carve out the time. 

3. Get managers on board.

If a manager considers learning to be as important as an employee’s other work, employees are more likely to see the value and make time. Managers can have regular development conversations with employees and suggest training to help further career goals. If, for example, a recruiter wants to source more diverse candidate slates, their manager might suggest looking at articles in the Harvard Business Review or taking a course on the subject. But managers need to keep learning too. And they can start by learning how to lead and develop their employees. 

4. Make a game of it.

Inspire employees to put learning time on their calendars by appealing to their competitive spirit and creating an office-wide competition. Here’s how it could work: Employees log their learning credits, achievement badges, or hours over a certain period of time. Top learners then receive awards such as special recognition, monetary rewards, or time off.

5. Shorten meetings and limit interruptions.

Give employees the gift of time by reducing the number and length of meetings and limiting interruptions. The average hour-long meeting can often be trimmed, even if it’s by only ten minutes. Shopify, for example, recently announced that it was canceling every recurring meeting with three or more people, giving back hundreds of thousands of hours in time to its employees. In 2018, Perpetual Guardian — a New Zealand company that manages trusts, wills, and estates — cut their meetings from 60 to 30 minutes. And guess what? Nothing was lost in terms of productivity. 

Interruptions can be time-stealers too. Research by LinkedIn and Josh Bersin shows that employees waste one-third of their day on emails that have little or nothing to do with their jobs. By eliminating many of these emails, employees will gain more time to concentrate on their work — and to learn. 

6. Learn together.

People are often most inspired to set aside time for learning when they’re learning together. That’s why community-based learning can help: Employees take a training session together or asynchronously and then follow up with discussions about what they learned through chat or online groups. LinkedIn research has found that 84% of L&D professionals in the U.K. believe community-based learning improves engagement and 94% believe that when teams learn together, they are more successful. 

How to make more time for learning in the flow of work 

1. Review your learning system to make sure it’s accessible and easy to use.

Employees are constantly looking for information, which creates an opportunity. Yes, they could turn to a search engine or social media to find what they need. But when your learning platform is easy and accessible to use, there’s a good chance they’ll turn there instead. If your website is cluttered and the information is arranged poorly, make the investment now to update and streamline it. Once it’s easy to access information quickly, in the stream of work, the platform will quickly become useful — and used — again. 

2. Offer stretch assignments.

Stretch assignments are temporary, internal learning gigs that offer an employee the chance to develop new skills while helping a company solve a real business problem. As the name implies, these assignments stretch an employee beyond their comfort zone, and one study shows that they’re considered the most valuable developmental experience employees can have — ahead of mentoring, classroom training, and even exposure to senior leaders. Even better, employees don’t have to carve out extra time for learning because the whole point of a stretch assignment is to learn. 

3. Make it short and sweet.

When employees have jam-packed calendars, they’re more likely to watch a seven-minute video than a four-hour webinar. That’s where microlearning — small doses of learning spread out over time — comes in. Microlearning videos are usually under 10 minutes and, ideally, employees can access them from anywhere, including their mobile devices. LinkedIn Learning even has a course to help you design a microlearning strategy. You can build out a library of short courses and encourage employees to visit it when they have downtime, instead of, say, scrolling through TikTok or Instagram. 

4. Make it available, just in time.

Just-in-time training, which often goes hand-in-hand with microlearning, allows employees to learn what they need, when they need it. It’s not much different from using Lyft when you need a ride; you tap into the app and request the service at the time you need it. These short, targeted training sessions are usually available from a mobile device, and are helpful for field workers, salespeople, healthcare professionals, and employees that need information on the go. When people learn at the time they need it most, it makes them more efficient at their jobs and more likely to retain the knowledge. Even better, they’re carving out time for learning without making a special slot in their calendar. 

Final thoughts: Be the change you want to see in the world

One of the best ways L&D professionals can encourage employees to carve out time for learning is by doing it themselves. Put time on your calendar for learning. Set aside 10 minutes each day to read an article or a few pages from a book that has relevance to what you’re doing. Watch a course on a skill you’ve always wanted to learn. 

It’s like putting on an airline oxygen mask before helping others. When you model how exhilarating lifelong learning can be, others will be inspired to follow suit. 

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