Challenge 8: Do you support learning and continuous improvement?

Diagnosis

To keep your SME competitive training and continues improvement in your staff is of key relevance. Training equips employees with new skills and knowledge that are essential for their ability to effectively innovate, for adapting to changing market trends, technologies, and industry standards. In a dynamic business environment, SMEs need to remain agile and adaptable. Continuous improvement training is required as it helps employees embrace change effectively and allows them find more effective solutions, do it more efficiently or simply have the skills and knowledge to develop any solutions and solve critical problems.

Positive aspects	Negative aspects
Does your company allocate resources for regular training programs, workshops, and skill development sessions?	Does your company lack budget for learning resources and training opportunities?
Do all your employees have access to training and skills development opportunities?	Employees lack access to up-to-date learning materials, online courses, or relevant books.
Do your employees receive guidance regarding how to achieve knowledge required for professional advancement?	Only selected employees have access to development opportunities.
Managers provide constructive feedback and coaching to help employees improve their skills and performance.	It is uncommon for our workers to share knowledge with one another.
The company encourages employees to share their knowledge and expertise with colleagues through workshops, presentations, or internal blogs.	Individual skills and knowledge are not analysed to make sure our company benefits from specific competences.
Employees are encouraged to take time for learning and self-improvement, even during their regular workdays.	Training opportunities are limited or highly traditional, not following future-oriented industry trends.
The company is receptive to new ideas and suggestions from employees, encouraging innovative thinking and learning.	Training opportunities do not account for employees skills, their aspirations and possible professional progress.
The SME consistently adopts new technologies and tools, ensuring employees stay current with industry trends.	There are no activities related with knowledge sharing.
New colleagues have direct access to relevant training and support of managers and colleagues.	Managers rarely offer feedback or coaching to help employees improve their skills and performance.
All types of projects are being reviewed for learning purposes and lessons learnt shared across company.	The company hires externally for higher-level positions, showing a lack of emphasis on promoting from within.
Failed projects and operational failures are used as learning opportunities and conclusions analysed and communicated across company.	Learning opportunities are mostly provided to management-level employees, leaving others with fewer chances for growth.
	Employees have no platform to provide feedback on learning initiatives or suggest improvements.
	Employees who pursue certifications or complete courses receive little to no recognition from the company.
	Analysis of failed initiatives is rare or no existing and/or learning from mistakes is not shared across the company.

Actions for implementation

Depending on structure, size and other characteristics of your SME proper solutions for covering training needs of your employees and efficiency of different methods will vary. In this part we will help you analyse possible options and identify solutions that will help you foster training and continuous improvements in your team.

1. Especially if you are starting to build an innovation culture, start with workshops on creative thinking and problem-solving or innovation mindset to make sure that the key innovation behaviours function well in your team. You can either invite expert to organise you dedicated to your specific needs workshops or send your team to join existing workshops and interact with other professionals in the process. Both approaches have specific benefits.
2. Assess the skills and knowledge gaps within your team. Identify other areas where training is needed to support innovation efforts. Consult other managers to help you understand the current skills and knowledge base. Make sure that you make such assessment regularly.
3. In collaboration with management team, draft training plan that outlines the specific skills, topics, and areas of knowledge that need to be covered.
4. Identify best approaches to fill in the gaps and who will be the target for the training/development activities (e.g. everyone in the company, specific department, a specific person etc.). Those can be for example:
   - external workshops, seminars, and conferences related to innovation and technology.

• access to online courses, webinars, and tutorials that employees can use to learn at their own pace.
• cross-functional teams to work on innovative projects that require learning and skill development.
• innovation challenges that require employees to learn new concepts and technologies to solve specific problems, for example related to work of other functions/departments.
• a mentorship program where experienced employees guide others in learning innovation-related skills.
• intensive bootcamp-style training sessions to immerse employees in innovation concepts and methodologies.
• Guest speakers - industry experts, entrepreneurs, or thought leaders invited to share their experiences and insights with your team.
• Regular innovation updates sessions where staff share updates on industry trends, technological advancements, and innovative practices to keep employees informed – especially effective for knowledge sharing after participation of some group members in industry events, conferences or updates of technology.

1. Whichever solutions or their mix you choose lead by example and participate in training activities yourself to demonstrate the importance of continuous improvement, ensure that your staff have time for learning and development activities and schedule informal sessions where team members can share insights, knowledge, and lessons learned from their experiences to ensure that everyone has access to learning opportunities.