Investing in your employees can serve as a recruitment and retention tool when so many workers go to the door in the middle of the Great current resignation. New research by SHRM Research and Talentlms have revealed that 86% of HR managers think that aid for detention training and 83% said it was a recruitment tool.
But the way you provide learning and development (L&D) is crucial if you want a return to your investment, said Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in its 2022 Learning and development trends in the workplace report.
“Organizations must maintain regular growth in knowledge and skills among their workforce if they wish to succeed, both from the point of view of the company and to attract good talents,” said Jim Link, SHRM-SCP, Chro at SHRM.
Generation Z members, for example, wish to work in organizations where they can develop their skills.
A huge 75% of employees said they were satisfied with their training, but organizations must closely examine the frequency in which workers receive training, their favorite learning method and the relevance of training for their immediate jobs.
Organizations should also take into account the desire of workers to develop general skills in fields such as leadership and communication and collaboration.
The results are based on an online survey conducted on January 29 to February 20, 2022, with 1,001 American workers who received training provided by the employer during the 12 months preceding the survey. A sample of 356 HR managers based in the United States who oversee or participate in the learning and development of their organization was questioned during the same period.
SHRM research revealed that:
- 55% of workers said they needed more training to do their work more efficiently and 38% want more relevant training for their current role.
- 32% want training to have a social element, as Peer learning or learning groups.
A 2016 survey conducted for Harvard Business Review found that more than half of 512 respondents (55%) said they asked for advice from their colleagues when they need to learn something new; 69% are looking for their boss or mentor. Furthermore:
- 32% want to be sure what they learn is up to date. When the Recruiters for the Global Personnel Company, ManpowerGroup, had to quickly learn to use a newly implemented candidates monitoring system (ATS), they were able to access a digital adoption platform that helped them learn the new system “when needed. “”
- 31% want more control over training programs, in particular able to choose methods and formats that correspond to their learning style and their development opportunities that make sense for their career progress.
Teaching using simulations was the most popular choice (64%) among nine different methods which included coaching / mentoring (51%), video (50%), webinaries / conferences (38%), manuals and other printed materials (34%), micro-learning (32%), audio / podcasts (25%), role play (19%) and Blogs and Internet companies (17 percent).
With regard to general skills, employees wish to develop and what employers provide, there are differences, according to the SHRM / Talentlms ratio. For example, 61% of employers provide time management training, but only 42% of respondents said it was an area where they wanted training. Employers and employees are more closely aligned around leadership skills: 54% of respondents said they wanted this training, and 53% of employers provide it.
Source: State of the workplace: Research report on the development of learning ads, 2022
“Training in the workplace has an impact on another key pillar of people centered on people – and that is the trip of employees,” said Dimitris Tsingos, co -founder and president in Epignosis, the company behind Talentlms. “Strengthening the positive experience of employees is a leading training objective for more than 9 HR managers, has revealed our research, showing that L&D is crucial to shape the experience of employees and create a positive and attentive culture.”
The desire to increase or improve their skills leads certain workers to undergo training by themselves, outside the workplace, with more than half of half to do so because they like to learn new things and want to improve their ability to develop their career (57% and 54%, respectively).
Only 27% said they were doing it because they wanted to change their careers.
Keeping this desire for training in mind “,” Organizations can consider offering in their advantages an annual personal learning allowance to use as they wish, “noted the researchers of the HRM in their report.” Few organizations are currently doing it; However, an advantage like this helps to cultivate a state of mind of development among employees and encourages learning outside of work, by further supporting a learning culture. “
(Example of SHRM members' strategy: Training, certification and professional membership policy))
Obstacles to training
For employers, the budget is often an obstacle to L&D. More than half of HR managers (54%) said that their leadership did not consider it as an investment; 52% of the resistance to the meeting when looking for the approval of the L&D budget.
So how much organizations spend by employee? It tends to be between $ 501 and $ 3,000; 29% of HR directors said that their organization spends $ 501 at $ 1,000, and 28% said they spent $ 1,001 at $ 3,000. Only 9% said they spend less than $ 500 per employee, while $ 3,001 spends $ 5,000 per employee.
The other obstacles, according to HR officials, were the lack of time to administer the training (33%) and the difficulty in keeping the content up to date in the middle of the workplace (32%).
For employees, lack of motivation was an obstacle greater than L&D, quoted by 33%; A quarter said they had quickly forgotten what they had learned or that they did not have enough time at work to finish the training.
Employers can overcome the obstacles to L & D, have stressed the SHRM researchers in the report, by creating a culture where learning is valued, aligning the development of skills on the objectives of the organization and meeting the training needs of employees.
Employers can do so by:
- Regularly monitoring workers to discover how the organization can better meet their training needs.
- Given the promotion of “learning ambassadors” who connect with other members of the team who pursue training or similar certifications and establish mentoring relations.
- Recognize employees in personnel communications that achieve training objectives, such as skills securities or university degrees.
When they are well done, organizations can take advantage of the advantages of L&D, SHRM found: 76% of employees said they were more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training.
