Company Culture: Ensuring Time For Learning and Curiosity

Expio builds in time for employees to learn new skills and feed their professional passions.

By Caylee Hanna, Expio Intern

A key component of working at Expio is continued education. The digital marketing field is quickly evolving, and it’s an employee requirement at Expio to stay on top of our field, so we can serve our clients in the best ways possible. 

We chatted with Expio Chief Relationship Officer Jody Reynolds to get her thoughts on continued professional learning as part of a work culture.

How are learning and curiosity employee motivators?

Jody: Expio Founder and CEO Andy Roller encourages us to allocate about 20 percent of any given day to education, learning and exploration. This includes learning something new about being a better leader, exploring advancements in the SEO world, and exploring new social media trends. Andy encourages any learning that helps us better serve our clients. And he’s quick to provide whatever resources we might need (books, courses, subscriptions, etc.) to gain those new strengths.

Closely related to learning, curiosity is also highly encouraged at Expio. Expio seeks out employees who have a deep-seated natural curiosity. Studies show that, as we get older, curiosity becomes less natural. When we’re children, we are naturally curious and want to learn more about many things. But sadly, that dissipates as we age. So, curiosity becomes a discipline for us as professional adults that we have to foster. We have to make time for it. We have to ask ourselves, “What do we want to learn about this week?” And then we have to schedule in time and be disciplined about it. Because, often, we forget to ask ourselves questions about why or how something works. But if we get into a routine of being creative, it becomes more natural. 

A professional culture that fosters learning and curiosity is highly motivating to the team, because we’re constantly encouraged to strengthen ourselves and share our new knowledge with our teammates, which strengthens and solidifies the team.

How does being curious benefit clients?

Jody: Because we are curious, it gives us the ability to share insights with our clients, which further enhances the value of Expio’s services. We provide better offerings to clients, because we’re regularly updating them with new and innovative tactics that we’re trying, because we know they’re smart actions for their business. 

How can companies and employees implement time for learning?

Jody: When it comes to scheduling time for learning, everybody is different. Whether you’re learning after hours or if you need a quick breather during the work day, you can take that time to gain new skills and knowledge. If you’re an employee, sneak that learning in wherever you can, whether it’s spontaneous or scheduled. Strengthen that habit, and it’ll be come routine to set aside time for curiosity and learning.

If you’re an employer, schedule webinars that you can attend as a team, share interesting articles, loan out your favorite books and regularly applaud your employees for their curiosity and for sharing their newfound knowledge with each other.

When you learn something new that will serve clients, it’s empowering, exciting, and you have the urge to share it with your whole team. It gives you motivation, which is contagious. You sit there and think, “I just learned something new. What else can I learn about this?” To be a better employee, and be a better representation of what Expio is, it’s important for us all to ensure time for learning.