In this article, we outline five ways employers can support individuals in the team to achieve their CPD goals this year and supplied a template to track each employees CPD progress.
1. Offer employees the time to commit to CPD
It’s likely your employees want to improve their professional knowledge, but in the midst of their day-to-day responsibilities at work, they can’t find the time to sit and complete a course or read an insightful report.
It’s therefore vital to dedicate a set amount of time each month for employees to commit to their training and is the best way to ensure they have the opportunity to learn and develop, whilst not being distracted by their work responsibilities that needs completing.
For example, the company could implement one learning & development (L&D) morning a month (e.g. every last Wednesday of the month). This will mean all employees are committed to learning at the same time and the functioning of the business is not affected.
2. Regularly checking in on their learnings
Employees want to show that they are learning continuously, that’s why it’s great to offer them the time to present what they have been learning and how it has positively impacted their work and where they feel their improvements could be made next.
This allows for constant improvement of skills and enables managers to positively approach employee’s weak spots and support guidance for how to improve.
We suggest implementing monthly 1-2-1 meetings with employees and their managers so they have this dedicated time scheduled in and can’t be forgotten about.
3. Providing a CPD tracker so they can manage what they are learning
To best support these regular meetings and keep track of the improvements individuals are making with the training they are conducting during their L&D time, we suggest using a CPD tracker. This can be completed by the individual and reviewed monthly by managers.
We have created a CPD tracker template that can be downloaded here.
4. Provide a clear yearly CPD budget for them
We understand it is difficult to allocate large sums of money to each individual for training, but it is better to offer an employee a relatively small budget and set expectations, rather than making them unaware of a CPD budget allowance.
By offering employees full visibility of what they have access to spend, you are also able to set expectations and reduce the requests for enrolment on courses that are outside the organisation's budget.
Most training courses also take split payments, meaning the business can pay a percentage of the cost and the individual can pay the remainder. Therefore, if you feel you can’t offer your employees a sufficient budget, it is better to make them aware of what you can contribute.
5. Helping your employees find the right training opportunities
Having employees committed to learning and development is amazing, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need some support in finding the right training. Keeping on top of the best training programmes available within the industry and sector you operate in is crucial to best support your team.
If it’s marketing training you’re looking for, we offer one of the leading strategic marketing training programmes and our learners gain 35 CPD upon completion of this programme.
To learn more about how we support marketers, download our programme brochure to find out more here.