On-the-job training is cited as one of the most effective methods of developing staff, alongside in-house development programmes and coaching by line managers – perhaps reflecting the need to watch the bottom line more closely in the current economic climate.
However, when it comes to talent management coaching overtakes in-house programmes as the most effective activity, in the annual report on Learning and Talent Development published in April by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
It reveals that over the next two years the most common step to impact on learning and development will be to drive change through greater integration between coaching, organisational development and performance management.
E-learning also comes higher up the mix than in past surveys, with a third of public sector companies expecting to make more use of e-learning, compared to only a fifth of other organisations.
One area for concern is that almost three-quarters of organisations in England report a lack of management and leadership skills – 85 per cent of line managers and supervisors, and two-thirds of senior managers are deemed to be delivering unsatisfactorily. The main leadership skills identified as lacking are performance management, leading and people management, and managing change. The majority of companies (80 per cent) intend to conduct leadership development activities in the next 12 months, focusing on the ability of leaders to think in a more strategic and future-focused way.
Fewer than half the organisations involved felt that innovation and creativity, involving all people in the company, were vitally important, with more than twice as many private sector organisations as public ones reporting this.
The difficult economic situation was a backdrop to the report and the trends emerging from it with the majority of organisations in economic decline, particularly in the public sector, and a third reporting reductions in funding for learning and development. More than a third of L&TD departments have become more business focused – continuing last year’s trend – their organisations reducing external suppliers and making redundancies, while almost a quarter have closed or restructured their training departments. Training budgets, too, are suffering, with a median annual training budget per employee of £276, 21 per cent down on last year.
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