By Heather Nezich, courtesy SBAM Approved Partner ASE
New research published by City & Guilds Group revealed that U.S. employees have a strong appetite for training, but there is a lack of accessible, engaging, and personalized learning and development (L&D) activity at work.
While 82% of U.S. employees say they feel fairly well equipped for their current role, 63% would like to see a bigger focus on training and people development. Employees recognize the skills needed to do their job in the future are changing (65%), but over half (52%) say the training offered by their workplace doesn’t always meet their personal career objectives.
44% of U.S. workers say their workplace falls short in this area. 62% of workers have resorted to investing their own personal time in learning, education, or training activity over the past 12 months – and 30% have paid to do so.
Despite employers saying they have the budgets and resources in place to invest in staff training, employees are struggling to access it. Only half (52%) of employees think it is easy to access the L&D activity provided by their organization. Employers in the U.S. cite access as the biggest challenge to upskilling their staff (20%).
In terms of the type of training employees want to see more of, they’d like more personalized (30%) and shorter, more bitesize (20%) content. They are also interested in increased e-learning/online courses (22%) as well as coaching by managers and the senior team (19%).
Many studies have shown that Millennials in particular want to consistently learn and improve their skills in the workplace. To keep employees motivated and engaged, talent development plays an important role.