Dive Brief:
- While employers in the tech space understand the need for continual learning and development, leaders and employees are not aligned as to how to approach it, a May 12 report from Pluralsight said.
- Employers emphasize hiring new talent rather than upskilling existing talent, a survey revealed, which leads employees to believe the company is not invested in their development.
- Leaders also tend to offer "one-size-fits-all" solutions, the report said, and opt for conferences, bootcamps and online or in-person courses; employees on average prefer self-paced courses, but only half of organizations offer that option.
Dive Insight:
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred employers to move learning programs online, experts previously told HR Dive. But this sudden shift has required a re-education of leaders, too.
For one thing, employers may have to reconsider a reliance on video calls. "High impact learning that produces real results requires more than this, especially considering employees may be burned out from video conferences with all of their meetings taking place in this format these days," Drew Remiker, senior instructional program manager at NovoEd, previously told HR Dive in an email.
Demand for such programs has also increased thanks to the pandemic. According to data from LinkedIn sent to HR Dive on May 6, users watched more than 7.7 million hours of courses on LinkedIn Learning in April, double the amount watched in March and three times the amount watched in February. Both soft skills and technical training are among the desired offerings, according to a separate Udemy study released in April.
But employees are not confident in employers' ability to cope with the changes prompted by the pandemic. Only half of employees surveyed by Eagle Hill Consulting said their organization has the technology, tools and training to transition to fully remote work. Managers may be looking to close this gap, however; managers spent 105% more time watching LinkedIn Learning courses in March and April than they did in January and February.
Employers also may freeze hiring to conserve spending in the wake of the recession prompted by the pandemic, which could switch focus to internal learning, as well.