Informal learning: The learning revolution

Informal learning is the new frontier of employee and organisational development at Motorola

The 21^st century requires employees to exhibit new skills and capabilities that may not be most effectively learned through traditional education or training. Learning should be a continuous process for employees to enhance their performance. Informal learning, for which the process is neither determined nor specified, and which may take place inside or outside of the classroom, offers a new possibility for enhanced productivity. HR experts at Motorola, a company widely recognised for setting standards in employee training, revealed that the ability to learn informally was a critical determinant of employee success. 

The ‘Teaching Firm’ research project initiated in 1996 by the Education Development Centre Inc. (EDC) of Massachusetts, involving businesses in six states in the US including Boeing, Ford Electronics, Siemens and Motorola, revealed that almost 70% of what employees know about their jobs they learn informally from the people they work with. Formal training programmes account for 30% or less of the learning.  The research also indicated that many critical learning skills are learned informally and that informal learning often takes precedence over formal learning. 

Informal workplace learning includes:

• Acquisition and application of skills and knowledge.
• Movement along the continuum from inexperience to confidence.
• Maturity and expertise with regard to specific tasks, skills and knowledge.

Certain key factors determine the degree of informal learning that occurs in the workplace as well as how much the individual employee is predisposed to learn. These factors include:

• External industry/economic factors such as level of competition.
• HR policies and practices match as experienced by workers against the formal policies and practises
• Social and environmental factors such as physical work conditions and social norms.
• Personal characteristics and developmental needs of individual employees within the organisation.

An activity in one organisation may provide a very different informal learning experience than a similar activity at a different organisation. Informal learning is productive for both the company and its workers when a company’s culture and practices fully support informal learning. The ‘Teaching Firm’ research consistently demonstrated the importance of organisations in providing a productive environment for informal learning.

Through informal learning, in addition to learning new duties, specific knowledge, and skills, employees also develop extensive knowledge and skills of other facets of the workplace, including:

• Intrapersonal: Problem solving, creativity, coping with stress and dealing with novel situations.
• Interpersonal: Interacting, co-operating, and sharing skills and information with other employees.
• Culture: Understanding acceptable behaviour, norms that are culturally rewarded and lead to career advancement

Informal learning occurs every day as employees develop skills, acquire information and test new ideas during work-related activities. The majority of informal learning occurs during the following work activities: Teaming, Meetings, Customer interactions, Supervision, Shift changes, Peer-to-peer communication, Cross-training, Exploration, Mentoring, On-the-job training, Documentation, Execution of one's job, and Site visits. Most effective informal learning activities are those that are challenging rather than those that are frequent.

Informal learning generally occurs as a means of achieving organisational and individual goals. Organisational goals include: Increased worker participation in decision making and expanded job responsibilities. Individual goals include three distinct categories: Need for personal achievement and development, need for recognition and acceptance and financial needs.

Organisations are most likely to prosper and be competitive when their goals are in harmony with the goals of their employees. Prosperous organisations are sensitive to individuals and provide them with the resources and opportunities for learning and achievement.

It is imperative that organisations find ways to align their goals with those of their employees because such an alignment is critical to the learning process. An organisation able to align its profit and market leadership goals with both the psychological and financial goals of its employees will maximise learning opportunities. This is essentially true with informal workplace learning because unsatisfied employees are less likely to pursue informal learning.

Related reading:
‘Informal learning: The new frontiers of employee & organisational development’ by Bruce Leslie, Monika Kosmahl Aring and Betsy Brand, Economic Development Review.