LinkedIn Releases 2019 Workplace Learning Report

Today, LinkedIn released the 2019 Workplace Learning Report, an annual survey of talent developers and learners, that identifies key trends in the learning and development industry.

This year’s report identified how learning and development leaders leverage increased budgets and influence to close skill gaps and increase learner engagement. Here’s what we found:

• More budget will go to L&D professionals. The learning & development industry is at a tipping point with rising budgets and increased executive support compared to years’ past. In fact, almost half (43%) of talent developers expect a budget increase in 2019, compared to only 27% in 2017. On top of that, budgets are shifting to online learning: compared to three years ago, 59% of talent developers spend more of their budget on online learning and 39% say they spend less on instructor-led training.

• Closing skills gaps is a top priority. Of the top seven areas that talent developers expect to focus on through 2019, four of them (including #1) focus on addressing skills gaps, while learner engagement (coming in at #2) remains a critical and constant challenge.

• Personalization and preference are key for driving learner engagement. Millennials and Gen Z learners want self-directed and independent learning opportunities that are more mobile and social. This provides L&D professionals with a big opportunity to develop learning strategies to meet the needs of various generations in the workforce.

• Increased interest among employees to learn. As the shelf life of skills shrinks, the report shows that people are embracing a more continuous, lifelong approach to learning. Nearly three-quarters of workers report that they want to learn during their spare time. While interest is growing, engagement remains a top challenge. To address this, L&D professionals have an opportunity to put on their marketing hats to socialize their programs and engage managers to create a culture of learning.

Ultimately, learning and development professionals have a big opportunity to leverage their increased influence to help employees build the skills they need for the future of work. More on the findings can be found here.

Methodology: For LinkedIn’s 3rd annual Workplace Learning Report, we surveyed more than 1,200 talent developers (L&D and HR professionals with L&D responsibilities) and more than 2,100 workplace learners across the globe to examine industry trends. The report presents these survey results along with additional LinkedIn data and examples from leading companies who are successfully addressing the industry’s top challenges.