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UPFRONT
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
BECOMES MORE
BUSINESS-FOCUSED
Businesses are waking up to the changes in
the world of work by aligning learning and
developing initiatives to business strate-gy,
according to new statistics released by
the CIPD. However, more still needs to
be done by organizations if they are to
maintain a competitive lead, engage their
employees and increase productivity.
The CIPD / Cornerstone OnDemand
Learning and Development report 2014
is an annual survey that tracks changes
in workplace learning and development
(L&D) practices. Findings show that the
top two changes anticipated over the next
couple of years are closer integration of
L&D activity with business strategy, and
more emphasis on monitoring, measuring
and evaluating training and effectiveness.
Reflecting the increasing emphasis on eval-uating
training, the survey revealed that
the number of organizations measuring
return on investment from L&D practices
has increased from 26 to 48 per cent. The
report also found that more organizations
are offering training to non-employee
groups, most commonly students, and
two-thirds of not-for-profits are offering
training to volunteers.
While the report revealed that orga-nizations
are paying closer attention to
metrics, it also showed that L&D process-es
and systems could be better integrated
with other aspects of HR management,
such as recruitment, performance man-agement
and reward.
“While there is no ‘one size fits all’ ap-proach
to learning, it’s clear that businesses
and their employees want to get more out
of learning,” said Vincent Belliveau, senior
vice president and general manager EMEA
at Cornerstone OnDemand. “Learning
activities need to support not only the in-dividual’s
goals and development but also
those of the business. This can only be
done by integrating HR at the board level,
agreeing on meaningful metrics and under-standing
the impact of learning through
measurement and evaluation.”
MAJORITY OF CANADIANS FEEL
THEIR EMPLOYMENT IS “JUST
A JOB”
Getting up and going to work every day
is harder when you don’t see your occu-pation
as a career. Fifty-eight per cent of
Canadian workers feel they have “just a job”
as opposed to a meaningful career. The na-tional
survey was conducted online by
Harris Poll on behalf of Careerbuilder.ca
and included a representative sample of
426 full-time, private sector employees
across industries and company sizes.
Nearly a quarter of Canadian workers
say they plan to change jobs this year, up
from 17 per cent last year. What is driv-ing
workers to explore other possibilities?
Employee satisfaction may be one cause.
Job satisfaction matters to most Canadian
workers, yet one in five employees say they
are dissatisfied with their job. Still, 57 per
cent are satisfied with their current jobs,
mostly because of their coworkers, bene-fits
and work/life balance.
Those who reported being dissatisfied
with their job most frequently cited the
following concerns:
■■ Don’t feel valued, I feel like just a number
■■ My salary
■■ I don’t like my boss
■■ Inability to make a difference
■■ No training/learning opportunities
■■ I don’t have a good work/life balance
■■ I don’t feel challenged
Those who are satisfied cited the follow-ing
reasons:
■■ I like the people I work with
■■ Benefits
■■ I have a good work/life balance
■■ I like my boss
■■ I feel valued/my accomplishments are
recognized
■■ My salary
“Offering frequent recognition, mer-it
bonuses, training programs and clearly
defined career paths are important ways
to show workers what they mean to the
Shawn Hempel/Shutterstock
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ JULY/AUGUST 2014 ❚ 9