LinkedIn France report reveals new strategies for training and development

As the world of work continues to evolve, training and development professionals are expected to see a shift in focus and influence in the near future. LinkedIn, the first professional network in France and around the world, surveyed more than 3,300 talented developers and professional trainers around the world to establish its 2019 Workplace Learning Report.

LinkedIn examined how training professionals have benefited from rising budgets and increasing influence to fill skill gaps, increase engagement, and value the potential of each person trained. According to the study, executives increasingly expect talented developers to accompany the company in the strategic planning of their human resources, including attracting and retaining talent, or ensuring that their employees have the right skills to face the challenges of today and tomorrow.

The year 2019 is thus considered as "a flagship year for talent developers". The 2019 Workplace Learning Report shows that talent developers finally have the budget and support they need to become even more strategic business partners.

4 Lessons from the Workplace Learning Report

1. The training and development professional finally has the budget and support to advance training programs

The results of the study show that budget constraints are a much less of a barrier for talent developers. Only 27% of training & development professionals mentioned "budget limitations" as one of the biggest challenges in 2019, up from 49% only two years ago.

82% of global training and development professionals (81% in Europe) reported that their management actively supported training programs.

2. Skills Deficits Top Priority for Talent Developers

As the talent market remains incredibly tense and skill life expectancy continues to decline, talent developers are now playing a vital role in their business to help identify, assess and address skills gaps.

This is undoubtedly the reason why four of the seven priorities posted this year by Talent Developers concern the resolution of these skills deficits within their company. "Identifying and assessing skills deficits" is at the top of their priority areas of intervention.

To help training managers identify skill gaps within their organization, LinkedIn has analyzed their platform data to determine which hard skills and soft skills are the most in demand in the world in 2019.

3. Self-directed learning, a method preferred by employees

Training is often set aside for lack of time. Employees want to innovate by defining their own training path. This is exactly what this year's report shows. More than 40% of Generation Z and Millenials employees, and 33% of Generation X and Baby Boomers, want to benefit from a self-directed learning experience, or opportunities to define their own training objectives, and then choose the content of the trainings that will help them achieve them.

This may be the reason why more and more training & development professionals are investing in online training. E-learning gives employees the opportunity to choose what they want to learn at a time that suits them. Most talent developers (59%) spend more of their budget on online courses this year than they were three years ago. In Europe, 61% of respondents have spent more on e-learning.

4. Encourage commitment by spending more time promoting training programs and engaging managers

Training and development professionals have realized that marketing is a key factor in increasing employees' commitment to training, whether it be email communication, intranet posts or manager engagement. and management to disseminate information about training programs. However, training & development professionals have indicated that they spend only 15% (14% in Europe) of their time promoting their programs to employees. By allowing a little more time to develop attention-grabbing marketing campaigns, the commitment is likely to grow.

The 2019 Workplace Learning Report provides insights into employee engagement tactics that work and those that offer opportunities. The use of managers as training ambassadors offers considerable potential: 75% of employees indicated that they would follow a course offered by a manager, but only 46% globally and 42% in Europe to declare that it is their managers who make them discover the training programs.

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