Spending on learning up 10% in an attempt to close growing skills gap

Dive Brief:

To address the ever-widening talent gap in a job market where organizations compete heavily for skilled talent, overall spending on learning and development (L&D) rose 10% to $1,004 per employee in 2014, according to new research from Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP.
The 2014 findings mark the fifth consecutive year increase. They appear in Bersin by Deloitte's new industry study, "The Corporate Learning Factbook 2015: Benchmarks, Trends and Analysis of the U.S. Training Market."
The research shows that many organizations are increasing their investment in internally-developed talent because they realize that they cannot recruit all the talent they need from external sources. The research also reveals that the roles and responsibilities of most L&D practitioners have grown more diverse.

Dive Insight:

"The need to develop existing employees is a pressing matter, especially at a time when very few organizations believe their employees possess the skills necessary to perform their roles effectively as indicated in the Deloitte 'Global Human Capital Trends 2015' report," said Dani Johnson, vice president, Learning and Development Research, Bersin by Deloitte.

"To compete in the marketplace, organizations should focus on long-term goals and ensure that employee development builds baseline proficiencies," Johnson said. They should also align workers with the needs of the business, training staff to meet present objectives while ensuring that the talent pipeline is equipped to address future challenges."

Among other key findings, surveyed organizations increased their reliance on outside service providers by 4 percentage points in 2014, with external services comprising 13% of total L&D spending. Of this, 22% went to purchase off-the-shelf content and 15% to the development of custom e-learning content. Also, surveyed organizations with mature, effective L&D functions spent $1,317 per learner on average, or 38% more than the least mature groups. And while it is still the top delivery method among those surveyed, instructor-led training dropped 9 percentage points to occupy 35% of practitioners' time.