Highly Commended: getAbstract Impact Award - Inspiring a Lifelong Learning Culture
Highly Commended: The Open University Business School - Supporting Business and Organisational Goals
Professional services firm EY is committed to investing in its people and giving colleagues an exceptional learning experience.
This year, EY’s UK Learning and Development team used Learning at Work Week 2022 as an opportunity to re-focus colleague learning on priority skills and mindset characteristics related to technology, markets, purpose and sustainability.
The team created an environment that gave colleagues the opportunity and space to learn during the week. They set a theme for each day supported by bite-sized resources which colleagues could incorporate into their own personal learning journey. The week’s schedule looked like this:
Day 1: Learn My Way - Celebrating learning culture and how learning can drive performance
Day 2: Future Proof My Skills - focusing on learning through experiences, technology skills and EY Badges
Day 3: Move and Learn in the Markets Skills Gym
Day 4: Learn Enjoy Perform - through positive everyday conversations
Day 5: Edge My Purpose – Who are you a superhero to? Upskill in the Sustainability Gym
Throughout the week, internal experts and external speakers presented topics aligned with these themes to inspire people to invest time in their own development. External speakers brought in fresh perspectives from their varied backgrounds which ranged from Olympic sports psychology to endurance record-breaking.
There was a daily 15-minute challenge which gave people actionable outputs they could easily implement. The sessions were hybrid, combining a physical audience with a live-streaming option for those attending virtually.
Activities were designed to reinforce a lifelong learning culture and challenge perceptions of what learning is. The team was keen to ensure learning was diverse and engaging to avoid ‘screen fatigue’ and so they created ‘move and learn’ podcasts which gave individuals the opportunity to fit learning in while moving and improving wellbeing.
Senior leaders promoted the week to their teams and recommended people reserve time in their diaries to participate. This, along with a dedicated Teams channel and daily internal news stories, helped make this EY’s most successful Learning at Work Week to date, with over 12,500 attendances during the week.
The team at EY are already looking ahead to next year’s Learning at Work Week after receiving positive feedback from senior leaders and colleagues, with many commenting they felt they had a refreshed appetite to build on the learning culture that was established during the week.
Learning at Work Week proved to be a timely and helpful reminder that EY people are empowered to take charge of their learning and development.