Survey: Increased Spending on Employee Training

L&D spending is on the rise, a new survey has reported. According to a survey conducted by Chief Learning Officer magazine, allocated budgets for employee training and development is have increased, in order to meet the needs of an aging workforce and develop a younger generation of employees. CLO notes that even though  the training funds have yet to reach levels that existed before the recession, the reported figures signal a growth in the learning and development industry. According to CLO, about half of the organizations surveyed reported an increase in their learning and development spending this year while also projecting a further spending increase in 2014, a roughly 4 percent increase from the year-earlier period. When asked how their organization’s spending on learning and development has changed compared with 2012, 50.5 percent of the 152 survey respondents said they increased spending, 20.3 percent said spending did not change, and 27.1 percent said spending declined. In addition, when asked to project how their organization’s spending on learning and development will change in 2014, 58.4 percent of respondents said it will increase, 19.2 percent said it will not change and 16.1 percent said it will decrease. The most significant spending increase, however, has been in learning technology and performance consulting, according to the survey, with about half of respondents projecting an increase in these areas. Many companies are investing more money in mobile technology and social-based gaming to develop new talent in a collaborative, social context, said Keith Meyerson, vice president of talent management and organizational strategies at Bluewater Learning Inc., a learning and talent development firm. “Organizations are catching up in getting into learning management systems to deploy and track training,” Meyerson said. “But even more importantly, they are spreading out into other areas of talent management. We see a focus on succession planning and performance management technologies. We’re seeing more of a move from just learning to now managing the data within the employee lifecycle.”