Resistance to Learning New Things Tied to Workload

A recent survey of cleaning staff conducted by the Dutch Council for Industrial Relations in the Cleaning and Glass Cleaning Sector found that 39% of respondents admitted they are unwilling to learn new things. Although this sounds like a negative mark against the staff, an article in the European Cleaning Journal examined reasons why staff may be reluctant to learn new methods and take on new responsibilities.

Labor experts in the past have identified the following bottlenecks to cleaning staff’s reluctance to additional learning: low literacy, low education, low digital skills, little belief in one’s own abilities, and inadequate access to training. However, a more recent meeting among labor experts in Europe on the topic had a different perspective. The experts believe employees are willing to learn new things but have barriers to doing such, such as travel distance to the training site, language deficiency, fear of failure, fear of the exam.

Another expert, Charlotte Michels of CareB4, who has 20 years of experience in educating and training employees and trainers, believes a low willingness to learn new things is a result of the heavy workload among cleaning staff. “They often work extraordinarily hard but then fail to finish and hear negative comments about their work,” Michels said. “When this is the case, you don’t tend to think about learning new things. You are just surviving.”

When asked to attend training sessions, cleaning staff may have negative preconceptions as previous training sessions just resulted in them having to do more tasks in less time. Michels says the issue is related to a lack of trust. She recommends building trust by listening to your employees’ workload concerns and finding solutions that will enable them to complete a reasonable amount of tasks in a set time. This will change their mindset and enable them to be open to learning new ways of doing their job.

“I find when I address groups, the vast majority of people are grateful for the knowledge they are gaining. Most are enthusiastic, especially if it relates to something they can use in their daily work. They regain work motivation as a result,” Michels said. “Employees might not look forward to training in advance, or think it’s an extra burden, but once they start they find it a positive experience.”