“Speaking for myself, I spend a good ten minutes a day deciding whether or not to read the results of new surveys, and, once I have read them, a further five minutes deciding whether or not to take them seriously.” Craig Brown
In “The Changing Nature of Organizations, Work, and Workplace,” Judith Heerwagen of J.H. Heerwagen & Associates and Kevin Kelly and Kevin Kampschroer of the U.S. General Service Administration note that work is now more: cognitively complex; team-based and collaborative; dependent on social skills; dependent on technological competence; time pressured; mobile and less dependent on geography. http://studylib.net/doc/8493490/the-changing-nature-of-organizations–work–and-workplace
Managers and employees need new skills to effectively manage these challenges- and they require learning and skill development options that go beyond traditional classroom training or e-learning sessions.
This is validated by the results of a 2017 survey of Learning in the Workplace conducted by Jane Hart, the Founder of the Center for Learning & Performance Technologies. Over 5,000* managers and employees were asked to rate the importance (value/usefulness) of 12 work-related learning methods as either: NI = Not Important; QI = Quite Important; VI = Very Important; or Ess = Essential.
The results of that survey are identified in the table that follows. The methods are ranked by their combined VI+Ess (Very Important and Essential) scores. The red figures indicate the ratings that received the largest number of responses.
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Results of the 6th Annual Learning in the Workplace Survey (8/8/17) |
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Rank |
Learning Methods | NI % | QI % | VI % | Ess % |
VI+Ess % |
| 1 | Daily work experiences (i.e., doing the day job) | 1 | 6 | 26 | 67 | 93 |
| 2 | Knowledge sharing with your team | 1 | 9 | 30 | 60 | 90 |
| 3 | Web search (e.g. Google) | 5 | 16 | 27 | 52 | 79 |
| 4 | Web resources (e.g. videos, podcasts, articles) | 4 | 20 | 37 | 39 | 76 |
| 5 | Manager feedback and guidance | 7 | 19 | 39 | 35 | 74 |
| 6 | Professional networks and communities | 4 | 24 | 41 | 31 | 72 |
| 7 | Coach or mentor feedback and guidance | 7 | 28 | 43 | 22 | 65 |
| 8 | Internal resources (e.g. documents, guides) | 8 | 32 | 35 | 25 | 60 |
| 9 | Blogs and news feeds | 10 | 34 | 33 | 23 | 56 |
| 10 | E-learning (e.g. online courses for self-study) | 20 | 39 | 25 | 16 | 41 |
| 11 | Conferences and other professional events | 17 | 48 | 32 | 3 | 35 |
| 12 | Classroom training | 28 | 41 | 19 | 12 | 31 |
The survey results reveal that the least valued ways of learning in the workforce are classroom training and e-learning. http://c4lpt.co.uk/litw-results/
We don’t know why the respondents give classroom training such a low rating. There can be many reasons, such as:
- Content focused on theory rather than on practical application.
- Too general one-size-fits-all examples difficult for the participants to translate and apply to their own work situations.
- Ineffective training methods, such as a predominance of lecture with PowerPoint.
- Lack of useful job aids.
- The wrong people received the training, due in part to a need to ensure a sufficient number of butts in seats.
- Inconvenient scheduling.
- The time commitment and high cost of registration and travel for off-site classes.
- Poor content, either outdated or irrelevant to real work needs.
- Poor instructors, lacking effective presentation skills and/or classroom management skills.
- No follow up by supervisors to reinforce the learning.
- A lack of support for implementing any new learning.
Since I design and deliver classroom training, I would like to believe that it is not classroom training per se that the respondents rate so negatively- just poor curriculum design, delivery and facilitation.
What do you think?
May your learning be sweet.
Deborah
* Breakdown of Survey Demographics:
Countries: 63 countries around the world, including USA 25%, UK 25%, Australia 9%, Canada 7%, New Zealand 6%, Germany 5%, and Netherlands 3%.
Industries: Education 25%, Financial Services 10%, Government 9%, Healthcare 6%, and Technology 6%.
Organization size: 250+ people 66%, and 51-250 people 13%.
Function: HR/L&D 59%, IT 5%, and Marketing 4%.
Job type: Non-managerial 39%, Senior manager 22%, Middle manager 18%, Line manager 10%, and Other 10%.
Age: 41-50 36%, 51-60 25%, 31-40 24%, <30 6%, and >60 6%.
Sex: Female 62%, and Male 38%.
