A lot has changed since the pandemic including remote work and hybrid models, “AI” and the digital transformation of things, an evolved focus on mental and physical health, changes in social interactions, increased environmental awareness, continued focus on climate change, and continued
political volatility and social unrest.
At the same time, and as of now before more bad jobs data trickles out, there are more people with great jobs than ever before.
However, something has fundamentally changed in how people view work and what they need to do to be prepared to perform at the highest levels. Like participating in training.
Over the past year, there have been several seismic shifts in the ways that organizations view talent development, and one of the biggest changes has been an underlying shift from “nominated programs” (high potentials, emerging leaders, new leaders, etc.) to “learning for all” where training is supposedly more democratized and open to everyone without bias or limits.
With all these changes why are we seeing the following:
- Average attendance of training (both virtual and in-person) has plummeted in the months of June and July from 98% to 55%
- A significant (20%-30%) decline in new bookings of training programs in June and July.
- Some companies have cut training completely during June, July, and August.
Pre-pandemic, June was typically one of the busiest months for training, now it will be one of the lowest of the year.
Why These Changes
During the months of June and July, Advantexe has seen an average weekly “Out of Office” rate of over 70% from our interactions with clients. People we work with such as training decision-makers, participants, and participants’ managers have been taking more time off than ever before. Here are some theories as to where everyone in the workforce has gone:
Changing School End and Start Dates
The majority of schools in the United States have shifted their start date to early August. Traditionally, most schools didn’t start until the “end of the summer” which was after Labor Day. This shift means that schools also end much earlier like mid to end of May opening up June for prime vacation time.
Pent-up demand for Vacation
The airlines and airports are reporting record traffic. More people are flying than ever before and some of this has to be attributable to a pent-up demand for those who haven’t travelled or taken significant vacation since before the pandemic.
Employee Burnout
We speak to hundreds of employees a week and they are tired. The cumulative impact of the post-pandemic ways of working 24/7 has absolutely caught up with people and they are not interested in training and/or career development. They are simply interested in finding ways to survive one day to the next.
People Don’t Want Bad Training
One of the inherent problems with “training for all,” is that it must be done and paid for at scale. When anything becomes commoditized the prices and quality tend to come down. To put it bluntly, employees see little to no value in crappy eLearning that cost $2 and are speaking their displeasure by not showing up and not participating. That impacts high-quality training companies and talent development in general.
Training Industry Decision Makers Are Reacting to Line Managers
The situation is further exacerbated by line managers not letting Talent leaders do their jobs. Line Managers are under increasing pressure and scrutiny for performance and they are making short-sighted decisions by not supporting talent development. They see every hour in training as an hour away from the “important stuff” and have been actively discouraging participation. Talent Management decision-makers don’t want to and in many cases simply can’t fight with the will of the business.
In summary, major issues are converging in the world of talent development. Like every other similar market and situation, the strong and strategic will use their superpowers to make great training happen for their organizations in the end will survive and thrive while the weak companies will give in and will ultimately fail because of their lack of talent.
