Everlearning: The Key to Your People and Teams’ Growth

BY Christina Cook | May 31, 2023

In an era of constant change, how can business leaders keep up? Whether it’s collaborating in a hybrid environment, creating policies for the use of AI, or recalibrating benefits packages, leaders are reimagining the post-pandemic workforce. On top of it all, there are still organizational goals to meet. One approach offers a solution: Everlearning. A new way of thinking about learning, evergreen learning empowers individual teams and organizations to develop core competencies and grow their strengths.  

Everlearning puts learning at the center of every stage of the life cycle. This shift in mindset makes learning easier to absorb and administer, and creates long-lasting positive behavioral changes in individuals and strong company cultures.

SkillCycle combines the entire talent and learning ecosystem with performance management, engagement, and goal setting, all into one hub that drives personalized learning paths. At the From Day One May virtual conference, SkillCycle's CEO Kristy McCann said “Everlearning is a culture of initiative, it is not a point in time. It's meant to be evergreen. It’s meant to continue to help with the overall change and evolution of not only your people, but your organization, and to get them where they need to go.”  

To start, companies need to establish baselines. McCann said, “You need to look at the value that we're seeing within our company goals. It's not just about [accomplishing] a goal, it's about how you get there. And what do those competencies and values look like?”

Evergreen learning is successful when applied to the employee life cycle. McCann suggested that leaders can look at where they are hitting the most roadblocks in their hiring process. By identifying these gaps, HR can become revenue drivers because they reduce the turnover rate.

Kristy McCann, SkillCycle's CEO, spoke at the From Day One May virtual conference (company photo)

When companies begin to take action on changes in company culture, McCann said, “It’s all about instilling that communication, but also making sure that you have the accountability within the organization that is connected to people's goals and roles. I have been doing this in organizations where the turnover has been atrocious. But the minute that we took down the turnover, I was able to yield $10 million in revenue. In addition, because we brought down that turnover cost, people have the skills they need to do their job, and we are able to succeed within our overall revenue. This is how you get the buy-in from your leadership team. Drive it from an overall revenue perspective as to what you can do and what you can yield.”

Evergreen learning can then be tied to goals, and then tied to the accountability, competencies, and the values within an organization. 

McCann said, “You're never going to learn everything all at one time. It's going to be constant, even with everything that's going on with AI, and ChatGPT. If we don’t have the skills to do our job, this technology will not be an enablement, it will just be another distraction. We saw this happen within social media. Social media killed critical thinking and inference skills. These powerful and durable skills of empathy, situational leadership, change management, communication, and collaboration are at the heart of everything that we need to do. And if they're at the heart of everything that we need to do, it's going to yield that profitability.”

This perspective also measures success versus how many employees left and how much money was lost. Instead, goals and benchmarks are forward-looking. McCann said, “When you're trying to put in an everlearning culture that has a growth mindset, often what hinders organizations is their accountability factor is gone. So we want to make sure that we're providing that evaluation of progress consistently, and how it yields savings.”

Often, business leaders are hindered by budget concerns. McCann reiterated that this is where measures and accountability become important. As companies launch cultural changes, every HR initiative should be attached to the company’s bigger picture. 

She said, “Numbers are going to be your beacon. Engagement is going to be your beacon. Feedback and measurement [are] going to be your beacon. Showing the results of how the company is succeeding is going to be your beacon.”

Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, SkillCycle, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.

Christina Cook is a freelance writer based in Dallas, TX, where she covers a variety of topics, with favorites including Art, Film, and live Theatre. Her work can be seen on Rawckus.com, RedDirtNation, and DallasArtBeat.com. Christina is also a creative writer. Her children’s book Your Hands Can Change the World was a 2017 regional bestseller.

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