The results of the CIPD's annual survey are now in, with a focus on 'Learning and Talent Development'.  The survey of over 700 learning practitioners provides data on 'current and future learning and talent development issues and trends' and this year explores 'the areas of employer support for learning, talent management as well as economic circumstances and training spend'.  The results were launched at last week's HRD event in London Olympia. 

The results make interesting, but not altogether unsurprising, reading.  Two thirds of organisations surveyed (65%) say their economic situation has declined in the past 12 months, with learning and development budgets decreasing for around 52% of them.  As a result of these decreased budgets, learning professionals have had to look carefully at their spend and try to get the most out of their budget. 

As a result, e-learning is the learning practice that has increased the most with 62% of organisations saying they are using it more than in 2009, which is great news!   However only 12% feel it is the most effective method of learning.  This is intriguing as it would appear the tipping point might have finally occurred in terms of e-learning adoption within organisations, but in all probability that they are not getting the most out of it.  If only 12% of respondents feel it is the most effective form of delivery, something is going wrong somewhere.  Frustratingly the survey doesn't cover the details of the type of e-learning being used and whether any effort is going into enticing learners to access the e-learning in the first place.  Learner focused front ends via the intranet or the LMS where relevant and up-to-date information and resources can be posted to keep learners coming back.  We'd be interested to hear from you on how effective you feel your e-learning is within your organisations. 

Also unsurprisingly as a result of the recession and cut-backs, is a renewed emphasis on the evaluation of training effectiveness, with 30% of respondents citing this as their key challenge over the next five years.  A further 39% felt that improving skills to help their organisation achieve its strategic goals would be their biggest challenge.  These figures highlight the need to link learning to overarching business objectives and goals so that everyone in the organisation is pulling in the same direction.  It also re-inforces the importance of having an effective reporting function that can track more than just 'bums on seats' and percentage scores of learner assessments.  Learning and development activity needs to be able to prove itself to be delivering value to the wider organisation as we move forwards.  And with the average number of training days per person coming out at four days per year, it seems there is ample opportunity to do this. 

Despite the talks of budget cuts, the report is largely positive.  It's an exciting time in L&D with new developments in learning practices emerging all the time.  There was no mention of social learning in the survey, which will probably change over the next couple of years as the online networking resources we all use both personally and professionally become ever more integrated into what we do.  And finally, with nearly half (46%) of organisations agreeing that the major change affecting them in the next five years is to achieve a greater integration between organisational development and performance management to drive organisational change, it is clear that what we do as learning professionals is not just important, but potentially critical to the future development and success of our organisations going forwards. 

Click here if you would like to download a copy of the survey.  We'd love to hear your thoughts over the past 12 months, so please do comment and let us know how these results reflect your experiences.