It's because when annual reviews happen they aren't talking about the books they read they're talking about a project that they contributed to.
In my experience formalizing "learning" in the work place doesn't work because it requires the performance of learning for management types rather than real learning which involves working through real new problems over an extended period of time.
The real way to get employees to learn is to hand them responsibilities they are not fully prepared for along with the pay that goes with them and see how it goes. Right or wrong managers are rarely comfortable doing that.
Employees need to be comfortable failing in front of you and few are because there are few good examples of that turning out well. When it does go well, all too often the raise they were promised doesn't come through.
this isn't to say you're a poor manager, just that it's unusual to have a healthy environment for on the job learning.
I agree, I personally have similar problems with formalised learning. Nothing sticks until I use the knowledge practically, and toy projects don't seem to count. Solving a real issue is the perfect time to learn (especially if someone else is around who can mentor or verify the result).
At least one big company I know of, learning is part of performance reviews - agreed upon in advance by the manager and engineer. It didn't usually help (at least AFAIK). Part the fault of the engineers and rest the culture of the team to always be fighting fires.
In my experience formalizing "learning" in the work place doesn't work because it requires the performance of learning for management types rather than real learning which involves working through real new problems over an extended period of time.
The real way to get employees to learn is to hand them responsibilities they are not fully prepared for along with the pay that goes with them and see how it goes. Right or wrong managers are rarely comfortable doing that.
Employees need to be comfortable failing in front of you and few are because there are few good examples of that turning out well. When it does go well, all too often the raise they were promised doesn't come through.
this isn't to say you're a poor manager, just that it's unusual to have a healthy environment for on the job learning.