Page 222 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

Job Enrichment and Professional Growth C209

This notion of different learning styles came home to us several
years ago with a former colleague. Although we are voracious readers
and are frequently recommending books and articles to each other,
our colleague didn’t embrace “book learning.” This wasn’t a matter
of him being less intelligent; his preferred learning style was through
experiential or small-group discussions. We found out that if he took
a few notes about a topic in a roundtable discussion, he could retain
every bit of what we needed to have him learn. So we stopped sending
him books and tailored our learning approach to fit his style.
When it comes to motivating its employees, Huntington Bank is
intent on not taking a cookie-cutter approach. Despite employing 450
individuals from all walks of life in offices scattered across the Ohio
region, the bank’s philosophy is to figure out what drives each indi-
vidual. “Different things motivate individual employees,” said Michael
Prescott, Huntington’s regional president. “A few of the most common
motivators are recognition, success in their job or position, and com-
pensation packages. At Huntington we take the time to understand
what each associate’s motivators are.” Prescott’s goal is to empower
employees in “an atmosphere of success based on personal growth.”
He believes that’s a primary reason employees enjoy working at the
bank. 7

Experiential: How can we create opportunities for people to
“learn while doing”?
We have all had to sit through many training activities in the tradi-
tional classroom setting, and, alas, we will likely sit through more in
the future. For some topic areas, the typical classroom format is ac-
ceptable for providing information to employees in a way that meets
the learning requirements. In other cases, learning is best applied out-
side traditional settings. At Enterprise Rent-A-Car, all employees start
as management trainees and learn how to run their own business from
8
the ground up. Doing this likely gives emerging leaders a far better
perspective on the business, a learning outcome not likely found in a
management training classroom.