'All On Your Own Time': Informal Learning Practices of Bank Branch Workers. NALL Working Paper.

The informal learning practices of bank branch workers were examined in a study of a major Canadian bank. The study included ethnographic fieldwork and secondary analysis of a national survey of branch workers' learning practices during the introduction of a new financial services software system. Activity theory was used to examine workers' informal learning practices as situated and to trace the shift learning at the bank branch during the 1990s from a process based on a largely informal training approach to an increasingly formalized self-study approach. The study established that the bank branch workers continued to rely heavily on collective and individual informal learning practices to perform their day-to-day work, adjust to the introduction of new processes and technologies, and cope with stress even though the restructuring of work processes and learning that had occurred within the bank left the workers with diminishing time for study and learning. The study resulted in nine recommendations, including the following: (1) allocate at least 1 hour of on-the-job time per week for collective and individual learning; (2) create a learning environment within the bank's branches; (3) recognize, build on, and provide compensation for workers' informal learning activities; and (4) consult regularly and systematically with branch staff to identify learning and support needs. (Contains 46 references.) (MN)