Daniel Slotta
Research expert covering Greater China
Workplace learning and development - statistics & facts
Learning and development (L&D), also known as human capital development and upskilling, is the practice of improving the abilities, skills and work ethic of employees in order to enhance general workplace performance. According to C-Suite members, the top area for investment in productivity improvement worldwide was employee upskilling/reskilling. In this respect, L&D needs to be distinguished from training, which refers to teaching staff the skillset they need to perform a limited range of tasks. With the incoming uses and impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on the horizon, Gen Z perspectives on whether they receive better guidance at work from AI or their manager in the United States were both interesting and perhaps somewhat cynical. The generation aged between 20 and 27 claimed AI was already the better teacher, potentially leaving L&D departments with much to think about.
With these things considered, it could be said that L&D departments should be looking towards technology for better retention rates and employee satisfaction, at least with younger generations, when it comes to reskilling and upskilling in the workplace. With markets and the global economy remaining relatively volatile, it is somewhat logical for L&D departments to try to hold on to talent instead of reinvesting in training brand new employees who may take longer to become productive.
Expanding market means vested interests in reskilling and upskilling
The market size of the global workplace training industry was expected to reach almost 401 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, following almost constant growth since 2009. In addition, total training expenditures in the United States have also been on the rise over the last several years, and reached roughly 102 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. These are significant figures, with the prioritized reskilling focus in the education and training sector worldwide being on analytical thinking, followed by AI and big data. This would suggest a considerable amount of money being generated by the L&D industry has been reinvested into technology training and the decompartmentalization of more complex tasks.Trends, challenges, technology
There have been many challenges to L&D departments over the last few years, including the impact of working from home and generally stagnating wages creating a more fluid environment where employee retention rates have been hard to maintain. Employee retention featured as one of the featured methods that L&D professionals use to measure business impact worldwide. The top method in this scenario was performance reviews, with employee productivity not far behind. Despite this, employee satisfaction with reskilling and upskilling training at their workplace in the United States has remained high. In terms of the younger generations of working age, the impact of using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on Gen Z skills at work in the United States has been overwhelmingly positive.With these things considered, it could be said that L&D departments should be looking towards technology for better retention rates and employee satisfaction, at least with younger generations, when it comes to reskilling and upskilling in the workplace. With markets and the global economy remaining relatively volatile, it is somewhat logical for L&D departments to try to hold on to talent instead of reinvesting in training brand new employees who may take longer to become productive.
