Employers Need Tech Push to Support Learning Culture, Report Says

Organizations must put L&D technology to full use if they want to develop a strong learning culture, HR professionals say. Most companies have much work to do, and the deployment of mobile learning solutions has been surprisingly slow.

While the great majority of HR professionals report using some form of learning technology, only 17 percent feel strongly that their L&D function is excellent, according to HR.com’s Research Institute.

In a new study, The State of Learning Solutions and Learner Engagement, the Institute found just 16 percent of HR practitioners feel strongly that they’ve established “a top-notch culture of learning.” That means, said the report, that HR has a “window of opportunity” to bring in modern L&D solutions that strengthen the learning process and foster a culture of “high-impact learning.”

And it sounds as if many corporate learning processes could use some help. Most organizations aren’t satisfied with their L&D solutions, possibly because they lack “cutting-edge features” and aren’t well-integrated. HR.com speculates that “a weak learning culture could be a barrier to acquiring and integrating optimal learning platforms.”

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Making a Learning Culture Mobile

That’s a fair point. But we can’t help but wonder whether the opposite is true: Could weak technology stacks be barriers to developing learning cultures? That came to mind after we read this finding: Over the next three years, HR professionals anticipate the biggest change in L&D tools will stem from the need to accommodate mobile devices. That was predicted by 69 percent of the survey’s respondents.

Only 42 percent of those surveyed currently use mobile learning, the report said. That’s an improvement from 2013, when the ATD and i4cp reported that just 31 percent of learning content was available on mobile.

Those figures seem notably out-of-step with user demand. A 2017 report from ComScore said mobile business users generated 65 percent of all digital media consumption, including voice, video and messaging. That well outpaced personal computers. Consumer—and thus employee—attraction to mobile’s capabilities has been well-documented. Not for nothing are so many employers looking for app-based self-service tools.

In addition, the report notes, younger workers expect to learn through their smartphones, often on a just-in-time fashion. That makes it important for employers to consider incorporating microlearning and gamification into their learning strategies.

As mobile technology advances, employers are sure to find themselves under more pressure to provide solutions of all kinds through mobile channels.

You can download the full report here.

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Image: iStock