HR must rethink L&D in 2023

The pandemic pushed people to rethink their lives, and particularly their careers.

Workers realized that they no longer wanted to spend their precious time doing something that didn’t add value to their lives. This triggered huge swathes of employees to quit their jobs – and now 18 months later, the so-called ‘Great Resignation’ is showing no signs of slowing down.

What the ‘Great Resignation’ has proved is that “modern employees determine the value of their careers by more than their paychecks”, as stated by a new report by Globalization Partners (G-P).

G-P surveyed thousands of global employees and found that flexibility and career development were top of their priority list for 2023.

2023: the year of L&D?

G-P’s report found that 79% of US employees, plus 78% of French and German workers, were happy in their current jobs, 45% in the US, 53% in Germany and 44% in France would consider a taking a new role if the opportunity came up.

While better pay topped the list for why the global workforce would take a new job, coming in second and third were: feeling more fulfilled and learning something new.

In the UK, 51% said better pay, while 28% said feeling more fulfilled and 23% wanted to learn something new. This compares to 42% for better pay in France, 25% for fulfillment and 21% learning something new.

The US respondents went down a slightly different route – a third cited better pay as a reason to look for a new job, 34% were interested in a different work schedule (perhaps the four-day week), and another third wanted new career opportunities.

Germany agreed on career opportunities (21%), with 49% citing better pay and 24% looking to learn something new.

HR must take action

Interestingly, employees don’t expect their employer to do all the work around learning and development (L&D). 42% of US, 24% of UK, 32% of French and 34% of German workers said they would be willing to do two years of education to help them get a new job or switch careers.

But this doesn’t mean that HR doesn’t have a role to play, especially because the survey respondents made it clear that their happiness and their productivity were inter-related – the figure was 66% in the US, France and Germany and 65% in the UK.

Talking about the survey results, G-P vice-president of Sales for EMEA Nick Adams tells UNLEASH: “The competition for top talent is more fierce than ever before and, as we embark on a new year, evaluating attrition will be mission critical for HR leaders.”

Ultimately, it is high time for HR to rethink L&D, and particularly the career mobility portion, if they want to successfully recruit and retain talent in 2023 and beyond.

But what approach should they take? Providing continuous L&D opportunities was crucial – 80% of over 1,000 European workers surveyed by Docebo said they would be more likely to choose to work for an organization that provides this type of L&D.

Succession planning and developing clear growth opportunities are also crucial for businesses that want to retain workers. 37% of employees told Docebo they were frustrated by their inability to climb the career ladder in their current role.

Some food for thought for January.

If this article caught your interest, you can find more on L&D here. Enjoy!