To understand the post-pandemic trends in relation to training, we partnered with independent survey company Research Without Barriers. Finding out employee attitudes to training in 2023 gave us a clearer picture of the wider issue of employee disengagement in the workplace. 

We surveyed 2,000 UK workers, split between 1,000 managers and 1,000 non-managerial employees. The surveyed managers have over 15 years of work experience and work in companies of more than 15 employees. The surveyed non-managerial employees have a maximum of three years of experience, and work in companies with more than 15 employees. The goal of these sample requirements was to give us better insight into the attitudes held at different levels of seniority. In the context of a rise in quiet quitting, the results were surprising – and promising. 

A common belief about quiet quitting is that employees are disengaging because they don't want to work hard or build careers. Our research actually suggests that there remains a strong desire for personal and professional growth among the UK workforce.

A staggering 86% of respondents expressed a willingness to stay longer with their employer – if the employer offers more L&D opportunities. Employees also aren't necessarily interested solely for what a company offers them. Almost all (94%) believed that the company would also benefit if they were given more training. In other words, workers are still willing and interested in engaging with their employers, supporting business goals, and building careers. But they are seeking fulfilment and a mutually beneficial relationship with their employer. This conclusion is reinforced by the social shifts we saw with the Great Resignation, where workers sought work that enhanced their lives.

Our findings underscore the pivotal role that learning & development plays in engaging employees. It provides them with fulfilling work lives – directly impacting their engagement with their roles and countering quiet quitting.

Despite the awareness, many organisations are falling short in leveraging learning and development as a tool for employee engagement, retention and skills enhancement. Only 29% of managers actively involve employees in selecting and integrating training programmes for their professional development. And 42% of employees reported having no active involvement in training beyond participation. This suggests that many employers, while aware of the benefits of training, are missing out on the benefits that come from actively involving workers in their own development.

There are simple ways to harness the benefits of employee-driven learning and development. These include giving employees personal ownership of training through suggesting courses or subjects and assisting with the sourcing of learning content. But it may also extend to involving employees in learning KPIs or the development of learning pathways.

Russell Donders, Director of International Markets at imc Learning, notes that "we have worked closely with businesses to offer bespoke training and development pathways for a range of industries. Feedback from customers, and our research, is clear: training is a key contributor to employee engagement and business development. Each of us wants to fulfil our potential, and we see huge success in the businesses who understand how to implement that on a personal level.

Bespoke training packages, rolled out across all levels of operation, is a simple and effective tool to engage and retain talent. It even feeds into the recruitment process. In fact, 92 percent of job seekers now consider L&D opportunities to be a dealbreaker – so it makes sense this would also feed into engagement for existing talent. Empowering individual-driven learning and development pathways is a simple but effective solution to address changing priorities and reverse, or avoid, quiet quitting."

Employee engagement has become of paramount importance given the challenges around talent scarcity. The trend of quiet quitting highlights the significance that employee satisfaction and fulfilment now play in modern-day workplaces. Businesses that are responsive to that will see real benefit to productivity and talent retention. By embracing employee-driven learning and development, organisations can align themselves with the evolving needs of their employees. The aim is to enhance retention rates and create a positive, growth-centred workplace in which productivity is a natural consequence of the environment.

We'd love to hear how your organisation aims to increase loyalty and engagement through employee-led L&D. Get in touch with us to see how imc can help you best reach your strategic goals.

1. Technological advancements: The automotive industry is witnessing a paradigm shift, with the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs), autonomous driving systems, and connected cars. Global auto brands need to train their employees on new technologies and their applications.
2. Regulatory compliance: Automotive companies must comply with strict safety and emissions regulations, which often vary across regions. Employees need to be aware of and adhere to these regulations.
3. Skilled labour shortage: The automotive sector suffers from a skilled labour shortage, and auto companies are quickly upskilling their existing workforce to meet the demands of the market.
4. High employee turnover: This industry often experiences high employee turnover rates, which means that companies must invest in consistent training for new hires and existing employees.

1. Cost-effectiveness: E-learning platforms can reduce the costs associated with traditional training methods, such as travel, accommodations, and printed materials. This allows government agencies to maximise their training budgets and reach a larger audience.
2. Flexibility and scalability: E-learning provides government employees with the flexibility to access training materials anytime, anywhere. This enables employees to learn at their own pace and schedule, leading to higher engagement and completion rates. Additionally, e-learning platforms can be easily scaled to accommodate a growing workforce or the introduction of new policies and regulations.
3. Personalisation: Customisable e-learning platforms let you deliver personalised learning paths tailored to the specific needs of each employee. This ensures that employees receive training relevant to their job roles and responsibilities, resulting in better performance and higher job satisfaction.
4. Consistency and compliance: E-learning platforms ensure that all employees receive the same training content, fostering consistency across the organisation. Moreover, training managers can quickly update hem to reflect changes in policies and regulations, ensuring that employees stay current with the latest requirements.
5. Analytics and performance tracking: The leading e-learning platforms, like our own imc Learning Suite, provide detailed analytics on employee performance, enabling government agencies to monitor progress, identify skill gaps, and provide targeted support.
6. Enhanced security and privacy: E-learning platforms can be designed with robust security and privacy features to ensure compliance with government regulations and protect sensitive information.

Look back a decade, and early proponents of remote work, such as Basecamp, were seen as unusual - even maverick. Today, post-Covid-19 pandemic, some level of remote or hybrid work is standard for large organisations. 

What can vary considerably between large organisations though is the quality of training to hybrid or remote workers and the level to which they are kept engaged and in the loop.

Many of the points here might seem obvious, but whether you are an experienced L&D leader or relatively new to training remote teams, it can be easy to see certain elements of employee engagement as a given and forget to carry them out. Unfortunately, out of sight can really be out of mind all too often, and this can lead to a feeling of isolation and disengagement among remote workers. 

Below is a checklist to help you ensure you don’t miss out any of the steps needed to create a comprehensive training programme for your hybrid workforce

Before you can create a training program, you need to understand your unique needs. Consider the following to train your hybrid workforce:

1. Job roles: Identify the skills and knowledge required for each job role.
2. Skill gaps: Determine the skills that need improvement or development.
3. Technical requirements: Evaluate the tools and technology needed to support remote and onsite employees.

Establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives for your training program. These objectives should align with your company's overall goals and focus on addressing the skill gaps identified earlier.

To accommodate both remote and onsite employees, consider using a mix of training formats, such as:

1. E-learning: Offer self-paced online courses and tutorials.
2. Webinars: Conduct live or pre-recorded sessions for real-time interaction.
3. Instructor-led training: Provide in-person or virtual classes led by experienced trainers.
4. Blended learning: Combine multiple training formats for a more comprehensive learning experience.

Create high-quality, engaging training content that caters to different learning styles. Ensure your materials are up-to-date and relevant to your employees' roles. Consider incorporating interactive elements like quizzes and gamification to boost engagement.

Use various technology tools to support your training program, such as:

1. Learning management systems (LMS): Use an LMS to organise, distribute, and track training progress. The imc Learning Suite integrates with many other HR and business software applications, and offers powerful training delivery and learner analytics tools. 
2. Video conferencing: Integrate video conferencing tools, such as Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams to facilitate virtual instructor-led training and webinars.
3. Collaboration tools: Encourage teamwork and collaboration among remote and onsite employees through platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Regularly assess the effectiveness of your training programme by gathering feedback from employees and analysing performance metrics. Use this information to make any necessary adjustments to your training content, format, or delivery methods. 

1. Cost-Effectiveness: E-learning platforms can significantly reduce the costs associated with traditional training methods, such as travel, accommodation, and printed materials. This allows retailers to maximise their training budgets and allocate resources more effectively.
2. Flexibility and Scalability: E-learning provides retail employees with the flexibility to access training materials anytime, anywhere. This enables employees to learn at their own pace and schedule, leading to higher engagement and completion rates. Furthermore, robust e-learning platforms can be easily scaled to accommodate a growing workforce or the introduction of new technologies.
3. Personalisation: E-learning platforms can be customised to create personalised learning paths, catering to the individual needs of retail employees. This ensures that each employee receives training that is relevant to their job role and helps them fill their skill gaps. Such learning personalisation can help employees to feel valued and increase staff retention levels. 
4. Consistency and Compliance: E-learning platforms ensure that all employees receive the same training content, promoting consistency across the organisation. Moreover, they can be updated quickly to reflect changes in regulations or company policies, keeping employees up-to-date with the latest requirements.
5. Analytics and Performance Tracking: The best e-learning platforms, such as the imc Learning Suite, provide detailed analytics on employee performance, enabling retailers to track progress, identify areas that require improvement, and provide targeted support.
6. Engaging and Interactive Content: E-learning platforms offer a variety of multimedia content, such as videos, quizzes, and simulations, making the learning experience more engaging and enjoyable for retail employees. Easy to use e-learning authoring tools like imc Express can allow your own subject matter experts to create engaging e-learning as and when needed to share with colleagues - without the need for design or technical experience.

The Great Resignation caused a major shift in personal and professional priorities among employees. Our recent industry survey identifies a new growing trend, 'The Great Upskill'. It emerges as the natural evolution of the Great Resignation, as people seek greater fulfilment in their working lives.

Aside from a greater expectation of flexibility, employees now want to work for employers that help them to enrich their working experience through ‘upskilling’, training, personal and professional development. Employers are responding by creating engaging career paths for the short, medium and long term.  In return, a staggering 92% of workers favour an employer with the best L&D.

We wanted to find out more about this trend, and find out whether people are actually motivated to engage with training, and whether businesses are accommodating and using that motivator in an ever-changing workplace.

In response to The Great Upskill trend, we conducted research in partnership with independent survey company Research Without Barriers. Our aim was to investigate employee attitudes in relation to training. We selected our research demographic to obtain rounded insight from a cross-section of UK workers, primarily in office-based roles.

To this end we surveyed 2,000 UK workers, split between 1,000 managers and 1,000 non-managerial employees. The surveyed managers have over 15 years of work experience and work in companies of more than 15 employees. The surveyed non-managerial employees have a maximum of three years of experience, and work in companies with more than 15 employees. The goal of these sample requirements was to give us better insight into the attitudes held at different levels of seniority.

The Great Upskill is all about employees seeking greater fulfilment and engagement in their working lives. One of the key factors at pla is the pursuit of personal and professional development. While traditional workplace benefits relied on 'quick wins', such as team socials, employees now seek for greater meaning in their working lives. Our research found that 86% of employees would choose to stay with their employer for longer if they were offered frequent learning opportunities. This preference demonstrates that L&D is a major priority and motivator for employees and managers alike. Employers who understand this fact can benefit amid the Great Resignation and the rise of employee disengagement, i.e. 'quiet quitting'.

The findings show the impact of this trend on employee retention.

A staggering 52% of employees admitted that they had left a role due to the lack of development opportunities. This clear indicator shows that there is a practical and real-world impact of this trend. And HR departments are seeing impact extend to the recruitment process. In fact, 92% of workers surveyed reported that, if choosing between two potential employers, they would choose the employer who offered the best learning and development opportunities.

Our research also found that,  despite the rising priority of training for workers, employers are not necessarily addressing this issue through frequent training. In fact, 48% of employees said they had not received training in the last 12 months. In addition, 22% of managers reported that they did not receive as much training as they would like.

Our goal with this research project was to better understand the Great Upskill trend. It gives us our greatest insights yet into the attitudes that have developed in the workplace in the aftermath of furlough. These attitudes are what's behind the rise of remote working and shifting social attitudes.

Businesses may be tightening their belts due to recent economic uncertainty. But our research indicates that in terms of real-world impact, training is one of the most beneficial tools a business can utilise to safeguard their workforce and optimise employee engagement. As well as reducing employee turnover, training supports recruitment and increasing employee engagement. What's more, 81% of managers surveyed as part of our research project found that training had a positive impact on their business's bottom line.

The insights from our research are fascinating and demonstrate a clear social trend around The Great Upskill, and UK media agreed. We secured six news features relating to this research and trend, including in:

HR Review

Intelligent CXO

People Management Magazine

Startups Magazine

The Global Recruiter

Katrin Heidler has already supported numerous customers as a strategic sparring partner for the design of leadership training courses.

“Given all the hype around leadership and management training, I make a point of focusing the client on the basics,” she explains. “So, at the start, we stay very analytical and nail down things like exactly who the target group is. What defines the group? What is the learning objective? What specific actions and behaviours is the course supposed to teach?

“It’s not enough to simply say, I want to make the managers more agile. I have to be able to specify exactly what actions constitute agile behaviour. Breaking it down to specific actions enables the courses we design to achieve the desired outcome of better leadership ability.”