What Are The Biggest L&D Challenges?
We’ve now lived through the Great Resignation, the Great Reshuffle, quiet quitting, and despite economic uncertainty, the labor market remains tight. PWC’s 2023 CEO Survey indicates that 73% of CEOs believe employee attrition rates will continue on pace or increase. One big solution to retain top talent: learning and growth opportunities.
Combine this with the business imperative to improve adaptability in the face of change, along with efficiency and productivity, and the shift from jobs to skills—L&D’s seat at the strategy table is becoming more secure. Yet age-old challenges (learner engagement) remain, and new ones (our uncertain economic environment) are emerging.
We asked L&D leaders about their top 5 challenges in their L&D department or organization. You can download our eBook to see what they had to say. In this article, we’ll highlight a few of the findings.
eBook Release
2023 Learning & Development And Learner Experience Trends Report
Gain insight into what’s working (and what’s not) from other L&D leaders with examples and tips you can use in your organization. Your learners will thank you!
L&D Becomes More Integral To Broader HR And Business Success
A new addition to the survey, “future-proofing to address skill gaps” landed squarely at #1. Add that to the jump for “elevating the strategic position of L&D” (#9 to #4) and “tying learning needs to business objectives” (#8 to #7) and you see a picture emerge of L&D as an emerging force in business strategy. As companies shift with greater speed and frequency, L&D needs to be ready—and in front of—those changes to meet the needs of the business.
“In difficult economic situations, future-proofing is the number one argument the L&D department has for the value they bring to the business.” — Andrei Hedstrom, SweetRush CEO
L&D is also more attuned to the role it plays in employee experience and retention—leaders once again included “growth opportunities” and “attract and retain employees” in their top 10 challenges.
93% of organizations are concerned about employee retention.
According to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report, providing learning opportunities is the #1 way organizations are working to improve retention.
Learner Engagement Continues To Be A Core Challenge
“Providing engaging learning experiences” (#3) continues to be high on the list of challenges for everyone surveyed. The high pace of change means that companies are demanding faster time to market with learning programs, and a higher likelihood that content will be out-of-date (and need to be updated) more quickly. Neither of these conditions are ideal for higher-interactivity online learning, such as games and simulations.
Even so, respondents shared the desire for enhancing creativity, quality, and innovation in L&D, especially through programs that offer learning in the flow of work.
The New Business As Usual: Remote/Hybrid Design And Using Data
Interesting to look at the biggest drops from last year: “designing and delivering effective learning for remote and hybrid workplaces” (#4 to #10) “using data to improve learning or prove learning effectiveness” (#6 to #9) and “adopting new technologies for learning” (#5 to #11). The digital transformation of learning, accelerated by the pandemic, forced L&D to design in new ways and implement new tools. As we move into 2023, these painful shifts have become the new normal.
“Data’s coming to its own and is seen as business as usual, but we haven’t pushed the envelope. This could be the year where we truly understand the impact of learning on the business.” — John Cleave, Senior Learning Technologies at SweetRush
How To Download The Report
Download our 2023 Learning & Development And Learner Experience Trends Report today if you’re ready to keep learning and changing together. We also invite you to check out our webinar WebVR = L&D’s VR Gateway To The Enterprise! to discover why VR is such a powerful tool for learner engagement.
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