Are employers keeping up with the thirst for knowledge?

Citation

(2001), "Are employers keeping up with the thirst for knowledge?", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 33 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2001.03733eab.003

Are employers keeping up with the thirst for knowledge?

Are employers keeping up with the thirst for knowledge?

Keywords: Learning, Human resource development, Training, Retention

A Hemsley Fraser survey of 1,000 training managers, HR managers and line managers has revealed that employers need to invest more in learning and development to meet growing staff expectations, or risk losing them.

Employees have a desire to acquire new skills and knowledge, so they do not fall behind their peers in a fast-moving world. As a result, more individuals are now taking responsibility for their own personal development, with 50 per cent of respondents choosing their own development programmes.

Are organisations too slow at keeping up with their employees' thirst for knowledge? At present, the most widely used means of identifying needs is regular appraisals with 95 per cent of organisations operating a scheme. Respondents were very positive:

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  52 per cent use appraisals to identify training need;

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  55 per cent view appraisals as essential to management and development issues;

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  84 per cent are satisfied after their own appraisal.

However, appraisals alone may not be flexible enough. With rapidly changing job roles necessitating frequent updates in skills and knowledge, 55 per cent of respondents still have annual appraisals. More frequent appraisals are better at identifying learning needs, but only 16 per cent of respondents have quarterly appraisals.

In the absence of more frequent appraisals, 30 per cent of respondents already identify their training needs on an ad hoc basis. This has helped encourage the growing popularity of new methods of providing learning support, such as coaching and mentoring.

At the same time as individuals are taking a greater interest in their learning, more and more organisations recognise that addressing skill shortfalls helps improve productivity and retain staff. Organisations which demonstrate that they value their staff provide additional facilities including:

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  day-release courses (27 per cent);

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  organisational learning programmes (22 per cent);

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  mentor/coaching programmes (17 per cent);

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  internal resource centre (15 per cent);

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  online training (13 per cent).

Helen Powderhill, one of Hemsley Fraser's learning and development specialists, comments: "Employees want to improve their skill levels which, in a period of rapid change, means regularly updating them. Employers who fail to respond to this demand face the growing likelihood of struggling to motivate and retain staff. Simple steps that will significantly improve performance through learning include introducing quarterly appraisals, organisational-wide learning programmes and internal resource centres."

For further information on the range of courses provided by the Hemsley Fraser Training Group, contact Nigel Jackson at St James Court, 74-94 Fore Street, Saltash, Plymouth PL12 6JW. Tel: 01752 849000; Fax: 01752 848101; E-mail: nigel.jackson@hemsleyfraser.co.uk; Web site: http://www.hemsleyfraser.co.uk