White Paper - Organisational-learning-and-development-client-survey

www.learningseat.com.au

ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

CLIENT SURVEY 2014

A white paper by Learning Seat

Organisational learning and development: Client survey 2014

INDEX

Executive summary

Key findings

Training areas

Delivery and strategy

Digital learning

Reporting, success and return on investment

Budget

Accredited training in the online space

What next

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page 5

page 6

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page 10

page 12

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Learning Seat’s inaugural client survey was com-missioned to gain an insight into some of the key issues facing learning and development decision makers, with a particular emphasis on their digital learning activities.

Conducted over March 2014, over 300 surveys were completed online. Nearly 70% of respondents described their role as sitting within either the HR or L&D function of their organisation. The remainder predominantly identified as middle or senior managers.

Respondents were overwhelmingly engaged in service industries with strong representation from the health, finance and government sectors.

While the size of each organisation’s workforce ranged from less than 10 up to 10,000, the majority of respondents clustered between the 100 to 1000 range.

As the first survey conducted by Learning Seat of this kind, the aim of this survey was to establish a benchmark with which to measure future year-on-year trends in organisational learning and development.

33 questions were asked, with results tabled under six key categories:

• Training areas• Delivery and strategy• Digital learning• Reporting, success and return on investment• Budget• Accredited training in the online space.

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

70% of respondents from HR or L&D function

Strong response from: health, finance and government sectors

300 surveys completed

33questions were asked

6key categories identified

SURVEY PROFILE

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2. KEY FINDINGS

SOME OF THE KEY FINDINGS OF THE SURVEY INCLUDE:

Digital learning is likely to form many workers’ first and most formative impressions of an organisation

Mobile platforms are a key driver for future training delivery

Organisations are keen to increase participation in accredited training although only a small percentage of their workforce are currently engaged in formal qualifications.

Most organisations don’t feel as though their learning and development budgets fully support their training objectives

Return on training investment is measured primarily on reactive assessments as opposed to broader, longer term measures of success

While digital delivery ranks favourably on most measures, much more can be done to deliver learners with more succinct, relevant and engaging content

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3. TRAINING AREAS

“Digital learning forms many workers’ first and most formative impressions of an organisation”

In terms of the deployment of digital learning for different areas of workplace training, there was a clear preference for using this platform to deliver what might be termed foundation content. Foundation content is here defined as content applicable to all workers within an organisation, regardless of rank or role.

For example, nearly 80% of respondents indicated that they were currently using digital learning for compliance training, while close to 65% used digital learning for induction training (Figure 1). These results suggest that digital learning is likely to form many workers first and most formative impressions of an organisation.

Interestingly, while compliance and induction training is overwhelmingly ranked as the training areas most likely to be delivered through digital learning, around 50% of respondents indicated that they still use some traditional methodologies with regards to their compliance obligations, and 70% still include some form of face-to-face component in their induction process.

In which of the following training and development areas do you currently employ digital learning?

Figure 1. 0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Compliance

Induction

Product

Soft skills

System

Business process

Health and wellbeing

Leadership and management

Formal qualification

Accreditation

Language and literacy

Cultural awareness and localisation for offshore employees

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4. DELIVERY AND STRATEGY

Unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents currently deliver digital learning via desktop and laptop (Figure 2). Around 23% deliver some form of training via smart phone, while in terms of tablet devices, iPads are clearly preferred (25%) over Windows (11%) and Android (10%) devices.

While demand for desktop and laptop delivery is unlikely to decrease, respondents report that mobile platforms are a key driver for future training delivery (Figure 3). While iPad remains the tablet device of choice (76%), all mobile delivery segments feature in terms of future training deployment. In terms of content development, the fact that 63% of respondents state that they intend to increase their presence on smart phone platforms presents some interesting challenges in terms of designing effective learning for significantly smaller screens. There are also likely impacts in terms of meeting Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

“Mobile platforms are a key driver for future training delivery”

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

0

20

40

60

80

100

Desktop Laptop Mobilephone NetbookeReaderGaming

ConsoleWindows

tabletAndroidtablet

Appletablet

Desktop

Laptop

Mobilephone

Netbook

eReader

GamingConsole

Windowstablet

Androidtablet

Appletablet

What platforms do you currently deliver to?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

What platforms would you like todeliver to in the future?

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Organisational learning and development: Client survey 2014 – white paper

4. DELIVERY AND STRATEGY

This challenge is perhaps being addressed in some way by the range of digital learning strategies being currently used. While the bulk of training employs familiar digital strategies such as webinars, videos, and flash and HTML courses, respondents are also using a range of less common tactics including apps, wikis and blogs. This suggests that while most of the heavy work is still being carried by more conventional digital learning solutions, organisations are also willing to look at more multi-pronged approaches to complement their overall learning strategy.

In terms of accessibility, only 30% of respondents reported that WCAG for vision, hearing or motor impaired learners are always employed in their digital communications (Figure 4). While these standards are currently only compulsory for Australian Government agencies, many other organisations now use these as a matter of best practice. With 77% of respondents catering for the needs of five or less learners with accessibility needs (Figure 5), this perhaps explains why 45% follow these guides somewhat but not always while 25% rarely consider accessibility requirements.

5 - 15

< 5

15 - 30

> 30

How many impaired learners (for example, vision, hearing or motor impaired) does your organisation support?

3.35%2.44%

77.74%

16.46%

Yes, accessible content is always employed

No, the organisation rarely considers accessibility requirements

Somewhat, as we work to accessibility guidelines where possible but not always

30.18%

25.00%

44.82%

Is accessible eLearning that adheres to the W3C accessibility guidelines an important part of your digital education strategy?

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Pg 7Organisational learning and development: Client survey 2014

5. DIGITAL LEARNING

In many cases, digital learning – whatever the platform – is part and parcel of wider business objectives and compliance obligations. However, for any learning – digital or otherwise – to be effective, learner engagement is paramount. Encouragingly, an aggregate of over 75% of respondents agree that digital learning is either cutting edge or a little behind internet trends but is quickly catching up.

According to respondents, the three most common areas of positive feedback regarding digital learning are that it’s self-paced (72%), easy to use (66%), and requires shorter seat time than traditional methodologies (36%) (Figure 6). On the other hand, the three largest areas of negative feedback involve boring content (61%), lack of interactivity (44%), and long seat time (42%) (Figure 7).

51.83% Online learning is a little behind modern trends found on the internet, but is quickly catching up

24.70% Online learning is cutting edge

22.26%Online learning is quite a way behind modern trends and has a long way to go to engage today’s audience

1.22%Online learning should stay in the 1990s

ONLINE LEARNING VS. OTHER DIGITAL MEDIUMS

Based on your experiences implementing digital learning across your current workplace, what would you say have been the three most common areas of positive feedback from learners?

Based on your experiences implementing digital learning across your current workplace, what would you say have been the three most common areas of negative feedback from learners?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Clear educationaloutcomes

Pleasing visual design

Good use of media

E�ective learningdesign

Relevant information

Self paced

Short seat time

Interactive

Engaging content

Easy to use

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Unclear educationaloutcomes

Poor visual design

Lack of media

Complex or ine�ectivelearning design

Irrelevant information

Self paced

Long seat time

Lack of interactivity

Boring content

Hard to use


Figure 6.

Figure 7.

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In terms of understanding barriers to engagement, it is perhaps worthwhile unpacking this data. First of all, the main areas of positive feedback relate to digital learning as a medium and are widely recognised and well-documented as benefits of digital learning. Only 23% reported that they’d received positive feedback with regards to engaging content.

Meanwhile, the main areas of negative feedback all directly relate to content. Whether it’s described as ‘boring’ (61%), ‘irrelevant’ (30%), ‘complex’ or ‘ineffective’ (27%), many learners are being left unclear as to the educational outcomes of their training (26%). The fact that shorter seat time is cited as positive feedback in one sense, yet also identified as a source of negative feedback on the other, is also a content issue. Firstly, for example, while digital training is shorter than other forms of training, it is still being perceived as too long. Secondly, whatever the length of the training, if it’s boring, it’s going to feel longer than it is.

The challenge for those commissioning and creating digital content then becomes this: To make sure that content is succinct, relevant, and conveyed in an engaging manner. If the training, through necessity, must be longer or is simply less intrinsically interesting to learners, then the more consideration should be given to its treatment.

5. DIGITAL LEARNING

“Digital content needs to be succinct, relevant and conveyed in an engaging

manner”

30% Described it as ‘irrelevant’

61% Described it as ‘boring’

27%Described it as ‘complex’ or ‘ineffective’

26%Described educational outcomes to be unclear

NEGATIVE FEEDBACK ABOUT DIGITAL LEARNING:

Pg 9Organisational learning and development: Client survey 2014


6. REPORTING, SUCCESS AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT

With a majority of respondents responsible for providing reports relating to training delivery coming from HR and L&D, it comes as no surprise that there is a strong emphasis on the monitoring and measurement of training (Figure 8).

Measuring training completion rates (66%) topped the list of desired reporting, closely followed by assessment results (58%), and time spent com-pleting training (57%) (Figure 8).

47.52%Learning and development

4.66%Senior management

37.27%Human resources

5.28%Middle management

3.11%Team leaders

2.17%Individual learners

WHO PRODUCES REPORTS RELATING TO TRAINING DELIVERY?

In which of the following areas would measurement and reporting prove beneficial?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Attitude towards compliance issuesor workplace training

Workplace to industry benchmarking

Time spent completing training

Assessment results

Training completion rates by team

Training completion rates by role type

Training completion rates by location

Training completion rates by learner

Workplace incidents

Absenteeism

Figure 8.

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In evaluating digital learning as a completely rounded business solution, it seems there is scope to both expand what is being evaluated and incorporate wider metrics and organisational involvement beyond HR and L&D departments.

While the survey indicated a desire for a wide range of reporting options, only 23% of organisations said they employed strategies to measure the success and return on investment of workplace training. In terms of HR and L&D priorities, these results suggest that managing compliance and the immediate impact of training via reactive assessments outrank broader, longer term measures of success and return on investment.

“Reactive assessments outrank broader, longer term measures of success and return on investment”

6. REPORTING, SUCCESS AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT

23.75% Yes

59.06% No

17.19% I’m not sure

DOES YOUR ORGANISATION CURRENTLY EMPLOY STRATEGIES TO MEASURE THE SUCCESS AND ROI OF WOKPLACE TRAINING?

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Organisational learning and development: Client survey 2014 – white paper Organisational learning and development: Client survey 2014

7. BUDGET

Among the many challenges of those responsible for workplace compliance and training is that of budget. 30% of respondents reported that their current annual budget did not adequately support the delivery of all training required by their organisation. A further 47% felt that their budget was adequate to some extent, while only 22% indicated their budget fully supported their training objectives.

When asked what areas of training organisations would most like to increase their spending in as a matter of priority, respondents identified leadership and management, workplace compliance, qualification and accreditation, industry-specific, organisation-specific, problem-solving and soft skills as their highest priorities (Figure 9).

24.03%Yes

28.40%No

47.57%To some extent

DO YOU FEEL THAT YOUR CURRENT YEARLY BUDGET ALLOWS YOU TO SUPPORT THE DELIVERY OF ALL TRAINING REQUIRED BY YOUR ORGANISATION

" Only 22% of respondents indicated that their budget fully supported their training objectives”

0 1 2 3 4

Average (out of 10)

5 6 7 8

Product training

Leadership & management

Soft skills

Organisation specific

Skills training

Industry specific

Problem solving

Literacy & numeracy

Workplace compliance

Qualifications & accredited

If you were to increase spending in a particular area, what would be your highest priorities based on your current workforce and their needs? Rank each of the following options from 1 to 10, where 1 represents the highest priority and 10 the lowest.

Figure 9.

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With regards to the amount of time allocated to training, around 80% of organisations allocate one to seven days per worker per year (Figure 10). Of that time, 55% allocate less than 25% to digital learning activities (Figure 11).

Less than 1 day

1 – 3 days

3 - 7 days

More than 7 days

39.69%

38.90%

16.45%

4.96%

Roughly how much employee time is allocated to training each year?

Figure 10.

< 25%

25 – 50%

50 – 75%

> 75%

56.66%28.72%

11.49%3.13%

What percentage of the total training time would be used to undertake online learning?

Figure 11.

7. BUDGET

Organisational learning and development: Client survey 2014 Pg 13


Yes

No

I’m not sure

77.68%

13.73%

8.58%

Do you or your employees undertake qualifications or accredited training to fulfilmandatory or compliance related requirements?

8. ACCREDITED TRAINING IN THE ONLINE SPACE

Over 80% of respondents indicated that they undertook some form of qualification or accredited training to fulfil mandatory or compliance requirements (Figure 12). Despite this, the majority of respondents indicated that only a small percentage of their workforce, 10% or less, are currently engaged in formal qualifications or an accredited training program (Figure 13).

Figure 12.

< 10%

10 – 30%

30 – 50%

50 – 80%

> 80%

34.12%

31.33%

15.67%

11.49%

3.13%

What percentage of your workforce currently engage in formal qualifications or an accredited training program?

Figure 13.

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Organisational learning and development: Client survey 2014 Pg 15

“Less than 10% of organisational workforces are currently engaged in formal qualifications or accredited training programs”

Apparently, however, this is not from a lack of need with a majority of respondents saying that they would ideally like to increase this percentage (Figure 14). These results raise questions about what the barriers are to increasing the uptake of formal qualifications and accredited training in the workplace.


< 10%

10 – 30%

30 – 50%

50 – 80%

> 80%

30.90%

25.54%

15.45%

18.88%

9.23%

What percentage of your workforce would you ideally like to access formal qualifications or accredited training?

Figure 14.

According to the survey, a majority of respondents said that time, cost, access and availability were all major factors standing in the way of increasing participation in qualification and accredited training (Figure 15). Of these, cost was noted as the single biggest barrier. This is significant as nearly half of those surveyed said they did not access any additional funding to support the delivery of this kind of training (Figure 16).

These results suggest that there is a clear divide between what organisations want in terms of qualification and what accredited training and what funding they are accessing to enable this. Quite possibly this is simply due to a lack of knowledge about funding models with more than half of those surveyed open to advice on how to access funding.

Given the desire of organisations to increase accredited training, there is significant potential for further development of accredited training options that draw on available government funding.


49.76%Yes

28.64%No

21.60%I’m not sure

WOULD YOU FIND IMPARTIAL ADVICE RELATING TO FUNDING OPTIONS FOR FORMAL QUALIFICATIONS AND ACCREDITED TRAINING BENEFICIAL?

What would you say are the main barriers to increasing your workforce uptake of training of this kind?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

All of the above

Availability of training programs

that address speci�c workforce requirements

Access to facilities and training locations

Cost of training programs

O�-the-job time needed to meet

training requirements

Figure 15.


Do you currently access any additional funding to support the delivery of formal qualifications, accredited training programs or language, literacy and numeracy education?

0 10 20 30 40 50

All of the above

No, I don’t access any additional funding for

programs of this kind

Yes, I access speci�c organisational

or industry funding

Yes, I currently access Federal funding

Yes, I currently access State funding

Figure 16.

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9. WHAT NEXT

Learning Seat’s first client survey provides a snapshot of some of the key issues, particularly in the digital learning space, that learning and development decision makers currently face.

The results of this survey also provide a baseline for future industry-related benchmarking, which will be used to guide the future direction of Learning Seat’s product and service offering. In turn, this will enable Learning Seat to continue to meet client needs and exceed expectations.

A second nation-wide client survey is planned for early 2015. It is intended that this survey will drill further down into specific issues and gaps identified in this white paper. Meanwhile, Learning Seat will be conducting further industry research in recognition of the fact that our clients’ thoughts and opinions are critical in helping us to provide effective learning solutions. ?

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Learning Seat is Australia’s largest provider of online compliance training.

For further information please contact us

1300 133 [email protected]

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