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Drawing on two pieces of research contrasting employee and employer perspectives of organizational learning, Kay Baldwin‐Evans, director of research at online learning provider SkillSoft, outlines the key findings and suggests that, to really make a difference HR professionals need to move out of their comfort zones. Charles Jennings, global head of learning at Reuters, discusses his organization’s forward‐thinking approach to learning and development.

The paper aims to examine an anonymous employee survey conducted by SkillSoft's client, Hilton International, in the summer of 2005.

The paper presents the results of the annual survey, which is part of an ongoing program to establish how Hilton's online learning portal, Hilton University, is being used and to find out how employees are applying the learning at work. Another important reason for the survey is to discover whether there is indeed a link between development opportunities and staff loyalty and retention.

The paper demonstrates that 90 percent of respondents said they found Hilton University learning activities easily accessible, with almost three‐quarters of the opinion that learning opportunities specific to their needs could be located quickly. Around 85 percent ranked Hilton University as either good or very good and 90 percent of respondents were convinced that the resources they accessed through Hilton University helped them with their professional development. Some 74 percent agreed that management supported them through the learning process. From a management perspective, 64 percent of managers found it straightforward to monitor and support the learning process of individuals in their teams. Around 95 percent of respondents said they appreciated the opportunity Hilton was giving them to develop their knowledge. This figure gives credence to the theory that training benefits company‐employee relations: 98 percent went on to say that they would recommend Hilton University to colleagues.

The paper backs the view that continuous professional development is an important factor in staff retention.

The paper reports that 37 percent of respondents said that being offered development opportunities was “the most important” factor in them deciding to continue their career with Hilton. An additional 50 percent said that although it was not “the” factor, being given the opportunity to develop professionally was very important to them.

Seeks to identify emerging trends in learning and development, focusing on how large, complex organisations manage and extend the competencies of their employees and the degree to which new technologies might alter the scope of people development in future.

Presents the results of interviews with senior HR specialists at AstraZeneca, Atos Origin, BAE Systems, Barclays Capital, Barclays Wealth Management, Dow Corning, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Getronics, Hilton, Holcim, IBM, German financial‐services company MLP, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Schlumberger and Shell, and Zurich Financial Services.

Reveals significant similarities in terms of the issues and concerns felt by these senior executives.

Contains much to interest the HR specialist operating in the higher echelons of a multinational company.

Provokes thought and encourages readers to adapt some of the ideas and best practices outlined.

Within the majority of organisations, e‐learning is now an accepted means of increasing skills and knowledge across the enterprise. Early adopters no longer think of themselves and their organisations as pioneers of a new and unproven method of training. For the most part they have seamlessly integrated e‐learning into their training strategy along with all the other methods of delivering training. Even those organisations that waited until e‐learning was proven are now enjoying the many benefits that e‐learning brings. However, whilst much has been made of the benefits to the organisation of e‐learning, there has been little, if any, qualitative investigation into the attitudes and views of the users themselves. SkillSoft embarked on an ambitious project to interview a broad spectrum of over 200 employees, across a range of organisations, in over 14 countries across EMEA. This article details the main findings of the research and shares the best practices adopted by organisations that have enjoyed e‐learning success.

The purpose of this paper is to examine e‐learning as a training option.

The paper presents a review of an article on e‐learning which had feedback from 204 interviews with employees of various organizations.

The paper finds that A total of 47 percent of the 204 people interviewed about e‐learning said they thought it suffered from an image problem and 50 per cent agreed that it would probably take up too much precious time. On the whole, the data suggest that e‐learning is an affordable and accessible option for training and development teams to consider, with almost all respondents saying they would recommend it.

This paper is useful to those interested in implementing e‐learning as a training option.

The paper's purpose is to compare and contrast employees' view of training and development with that of employers. It seeks to identify synergies between what employees want to learn and the way in which they would like to develop their skills, with the training made available to them by their organisations.

Two separate but complementary surveys were carried out simultaneously: a qualitative study, consisting of in‐depth, face‐to‐face interviews with senior HR executives in large organisations from a cross spread of industry sectors, including Atos Origin, BDO Stoy Hayward, DHL, GSK, HBOS, ING Direct, LloydsTSB, Nestlé Purina, Parexel, Pilkington Group, Reuters, Royal Bank of Scotland, SITA, TDK, T‐Mobile, and Virgin Atlantic. The second survey was a quantitative web‐based survey, open to anyone in full time employment. Over 5,360 people participated and almost all industry sectors were represented, as was most of the public sector.

The findings focused on the following areas: employee engagement; quality, value and impact; the critical role of managers; employee productivity; focus on the learner; and the future vision.

The paper provides HR professionals with a benchmark for shaping learning and development programmes.

The paper shares current best practice in organisational development and gives a steer on future delivery methods and approaches.

This paper proposes to illustrate how organisations can successfully establish a blended learning environment.

Provides a structure for combining formal and informal learning resources within a blended learning model and outlines the eight key steps followed by organisations already implementing a successful integrated learning strategy. Draws on pedagogical information provided by Dorman Woodall, director of SkillSoft Learning, and includes data gathered from a variety of SkillSoft's Fortune 500 customers.

Many organisations now recognise that on‐demand solution finding is a primary source of employees' daily learning and are searching for ways to support this informal learning in tandem with their more formalised training programmes. Since both methods are essential to increasing workplace skills, tremendous strategic and tactical performance gains are available from this blending of formal training with informal learning. The ideal blended learning model is one that integrates a wide range of functions that empower learners with more control to participate in several formal and informal learning activities. The highest level of blended learning is an easily‐accessible and searchable combination of formal and informal learning with a learner‐centric focus.

Outlines an overall structure for implementing sequential formal training events and random informal blended learning activities.

Provides a blueprint for anyone seeking to introduce a blended learning strategy.

Leadership in the 21st century can be a minefield. Power to the people, and to the shareholders, is the order of the day, and the autocratic route is rarely an acceptable option ‐ even in entrepreneurial‐based organizations where it was once deemed alright for strong‐willed leaders to firmly stamp their vision and authority on others.

The purpose of this paper is to describe “what happened” with round two of the implementation of Learning 2.0 with a large and diverse group of library staff at Edith Cowan University (ECU) Library during 2007/2008.

A previous paper reported on a study of the suitability of the 23 Things Learning 2.0 program for a small group of early adopters in the ECU Library. This follow‐up paper reports challenges that library management faced when the remaining staff were given the 23 Things Learning 2.0 program. All remaining library staff members were encouraged to undertake the program, but take‐up was not strong and only 25 per cent of staff completed the program. At the conclusion of round two of Learning 2.0, all staff were surveyed to find out reasons for completion or non‐completion, what types of technologies they needed support with, and how they wished to learn about the emerging/Web 2.0 technologies.

From the observations and survey responses in this study it was found that while Learning 2.0 was a suitable program, some staff required extra time and a more hands‐on approach to their workplace learning.

The paper is unique in that it follows up on previous research at the same institution, and reveals new findings.