Global Employer Research by Pearson talks about how employers lack an organized approach to L&D today, a disconnect between employers and employees on L&D culture, recognizing a need for upskilling. The global survey has been done by Pearson and Edge Research. Respondents were HR professionals recruited for a mix of functions, industries, and geographies. The recruiting targeted corporations with over 5,000 employee.
Key findings of the study:
Employers lack an organized approach to L&D today
- Only 42% companies in India have L&D policy, but its decentralised | China is the only country where the majority (51%) have a centralized policy, as do those in Business and HR verticals
- In India 57% of the employers support L&D through Mentoring/work-based learning programs | However, only 46% of the employers provide financial assistance to employees for doing any L&D program
- Though 51% of the Indian employers offer single online courses to the employees at no cost, 55% of the Indian employers provide training programs to prepare for a professional certification
- Employers in India and China place more requirements on programs to receive support
- As far as L&D program evaluation is concerned, 63% of the employers think External Programs are effective however, 61% think internal programs to be effective
Disconnect between employers and employees on L&D culture and resources that impacts engagement
- India is the one country where equal numbers of employers (54%) and employees (53%) say CE is encouraged as part of the company culture
- 49% of Indian employers feel that employees take advantage of the programs when they are offered tuition reimbursement/assistance | Only 41% of Indian employees utilise company’s L&D budget
- Indian Adult Learners think Taking time off (41%), engagement (42%), and finding right external providers (41%) are key L&D barriers
A need for upskilling & reskilling in the coming years
- In the next ten years, employers anticipate the greatest change will be a need to retrain employees for current roles and train employees for entirely new roles
- Though 49% of Indian employers feel that they need to retrain employees on new skills required for their current roles, 52% of the employers think that they need to significantly invest in training employees for new roles
- 43% of Indian companies think that they will increase the number of existing roles in workforce however, 30% of the companies will phase out/eliminate entire department/s
- Employers are open to external support across a variety of services: identifying the right employees to train, developing content, tracking program success, and even offering easy enrolment | 63% of Indian employers identify and engage the right employees and even 57% of the Indian companies track the success of the program
- 55% of the Indian companies even offer easy enrolments to employees through internal/external platforms
Need for support is largely focused on soft skills which is currently lacking however, employers are most concerned with identifying the right hard skills
- Soft skills top the list (9 out of top 10) of what’s important once employees are in the workforce. When we compare to the skills most lacking, oral & written communication, collaboration & teamwork, judgement and decision-making and leadership become priority
- Employers, like the Adult Learners who work for them, prefer a hybrid approach to learning. More prefer online to in-person for hard skills, while leadership and teamwork need some face-to-face
- Online and hybrid courses provide greater flexibility for the learner, save time, and cost less than in-person programming | The minority who prefer face-to-face maintain that certain soft skills are better taught via live instruction
- While hiring, 51% of Indian employers think that an Indian candidate lack needed hard skills however, only 38% of the employers feel that Indian candidates lack needed soft skills | 40% of the Indian employers face a challenge with required years of experience
- With reference to the skill assessment, 69% of Indian companies rely on resumes/CV and 61% depend on one-on-one interview/s
- As far as Soft Skills Assessment is concerned, 69% of Indian employers prefer in-person interviews
- Soft Skill Assessments is significantly higher in India as 70% of the employers who use soft skills assessments believe that they are more accurate at measuring key skills
Employers are increasingly open to non-degree credentials
- Views are shifting as 71% of Indian employers are considering, actively exploring, or started hiring employees with only non-degree credentials
- Openness to non-degree credentials is consistent across industries, with the exception of a few (e.g. Retail) who are more likely to have always hired such credentials | Health care and Professional service employers are more likely not to hire today or in the future
- Despite this openness, employers aren’t necessarily equipped to evaluate non-degree credentials and often default to traditional credentials like Bachelor’s Degrees
- Getting a qualification/certificate that is recognized is a key priority for employees | This speaks to the need to help employers understand and evaluate the value of non-degree credentials
- Demonstrating real world application, industry specifics are far more valuable than program rigor or badges | 51% of Indian employers think industry-based non-degree credential is valuable
- Though 43% of the Indian employers feel that alignment of the curriculum with applied, real world work is important, 48% of the companies think that a candidate is its valuable if he/she demonstrate real-world application
