Instructure Expands Bridge Learning Platform to be ‘Employee-Centric’

Despite the continual talk of learning’s importance to engagement, 70 percent of American employees are at least somewhat likely to jump to a new company if they think they’ll find better development opportunities there. Instructure sees an opportunity.

So, Instructure announced a new Bridge Employment Development Platform to help employers address what it calls “the disconnect” in learning between organizations and their workers. The platform builds on Bridge’s previous offerings with a Career module to aid in career pathing and an Engage module to cover issues related to employee voice.

Instructure describes Bridge Career as a “career development tool that helps individuals align their role with their long-term career vision.” Engage, it said, provides pulse surveys that help managers and executives “have the right conversations and take the right actions to improve culture and drive engagement.”

Bridge already offered Learn, Perform and Practice features.

That’s according to a Harris Poll conducted for the learning-platform provider Instructure.

Good Timing for Bridge Learning

The new modules are landing on fertile ground. A Harris poll conducted for Instructure found wide gaps between what employers say they offer and what employees think is available. For example, 90 percent of organizations claim to offer career development tools, but only 26 percent of workers say those tools are effective. That’s not good when 77 percent of employees feel like they’re on their own when it comes to career development.

And while 69 percent of employers say career growth is extremely important to retention, 34 percent of the employees who’ve jumped ship did so because they wanted more development opportunities. The only bigger reason was compensation, which 46 percent of workers cited as the primary cause.

One data point that surely got Instructure’s attention was a feeling that, as the company said, “today’s talent management tools are not making the cut.” Nearly 100 percent of employers offer career development tools, but investing in new or better tools was the top priority for 27 percent of them, nearly twice as many as any other option. “Even with an abundance of tools, employers recognize that something is missing as they struggle with retention rates,” Instructure said.

Instructure is pounding home the message that Bridge learning is increasingly employee-centric. Mitch Benson, senior vice president of product, said the company’s own research showed a real need for learning solutions that put employees front and center. “Today’s workforce has options, and people are clear about the fact that they want to work for companies that will invest in their careers,” he said.

Employers are under pressure to pay more attention to learning as the need for upskilling and cross-training becomes more intense. In January, Gartner reported that 2019’s top priorities for HR was building critical skills and competencies, bulking up leadership strength and improving the employee experience.

Among L&D leaders, 85 percent saw preparing workers for digital disruption as their top priority, compared to 73 percent of HR heads and 52 percent of recruiting leaders.

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Image: Instructure