Rebranding learning & development as an employee perk

We are all familiar with businesses using perks as a tool to incentivise and entice their employees. However, the nature of employee perks is changing as organisations think up creative benefits for their people, from in office saunas, to paid puppy leave.

But there is still one (often underrated) employee perk which is potentially the secret sauce for employee engagement – L&D. And this is especially true for millennials.

L&D and the millennial workforce

As the millennial workforce is slowly starting to take up over a third of the global workforce, it’s time for businesses to question whether the employee perks on offer are really going to appeal to the largest working generation.

According to Manpower’s recent report ‘Millennial careers: 2020 vision’ millennials are more likely to stick with (or move to) a company which offers learning and career development opportunities. So, it makes sense for L&D and the business to capitalise on this incentive and rebrand L&D as an employee perk.

Rebranding learning as a perk could really help to attract new millennial talent, increase staff retention rates and even have a significant impact on learner engagement. It really is a win-win situation for the learner, the business, and for L&D.

Here are some straightforward and effective ways you can start to rebrand L&D as an employee perk:

Getting your business on board

In a perfect world, L&D should always be working alongside the business and this is especially true for rebranding L&D as an employee perk. It’s up to us to make sure the business is on board with the rebrand, so we can collectively pull together the resources needed to make it happen, from updating the employee benefits packet, to outwardly promoting the perk to attract new talent.

Align your goals

Once your business is on board it’s important to take a step back and check that your goals are aligned. You may have decided to rebrand your learning as a perk, but what goals are you hoping to achieve by doing this? Maybe your looking to attract new talent, or perhaps you are focusing on increasing employee engagement and improving staff retention. Whatever the reason, it’s vital that your goals are aligned.

Adopt a marketing mindset

I am particularly passionate about how adopting a marketing mindset can lead to significant benefits for L&D and this is another great example.

Rebranding and marketing go hand in hand, so it’s a great time to tap into your L&D marketing skills and really get to know your audience. We already know that we’re targeting millennials, but we need to dig deeper and really start to understand them. Once you’ve got to know their mindset, you can tailor your message so it’s personal to their motivations and hooks them into viewing your learning as a fantastic perk.

Take a campaign approach

We’ve already identified that learning as an employee perk is a fantastic message you can share with your learners and new talent. That’s not quite enough, now we need to focus on how you can make sure it reaches your audience effectively.

By taking a campaign approach you can ensure your message reaches the right people, in the right ways, and at the right time. To run an effective campaign, it’s important to think long term using as many tools in the marketing mix as possible. For example, if your goal is to attract new talent you might want to use your companies’ social media presence to amplify your message or if you’re looking to increase employee engagement, well placed posters can work wonders.

By investing in each of these areas, you will be well on your way to rebranding your L&D as a must have employee perk, increasing the engagement of your people and attracting more talent to your organisation.