Highlights from LinkedIn Learning Report 2021
the good, bad and the strange 🙂
We may bemoan social media, a lack of privacy, a constant need for updates and attention, the endless buzzes and bings of notifications and interruptions, but it has to be said it has real pluses… one of which is the ability we all have to be informed of new research and information that allows us to consider how we have operated in the past, how we are conducting our business now and how we can improve on what we do in the future.
With that in mind, let’s take a fresh look at one of the key annual reports on the topic of workplace learning, the LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2021.
Beginning with a “thank you”
Before we review the highlights, let’s take a moment to appreciate what the Linkedin Workplace Learning Report offers. Based on the company’s business model, it can pull from a large variety of sources and obtain a significant supply of data regarding the learning processes and trends that are being used throughout the business community today. The transfer of learning environment has changed drastically in the 21st century, and like so many other parts of our working lives, will continue to change at a rapid pace. This report is invaluable to those of us keen to study learning and learning transfer, and attempt to provide insights into successful transfer of learning.
That being said, a 65-page report is likely to have its high points and low points and is likely to raise questions and start discussions.
The study offers chapters on “The State of the L&D Industry”, “Power skills for the new world of work”, “Learner engagement in hybrid workplaces”, and “Looking ahead: what you need to know”. But we are going to concentrate on three pages of the 65-page report that bring up topics we feel strongly about. We suggest that one of the topics is “good,’’ one is “bad”, and one is downright “strange”.
The Good
The subject is “Diversity & Inclusion: L&D’s critical role to help create a more equitable workplace”.
The point is driven home in this blog post from Linkedin Vice President for Global Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, Rosanna Durruthy:
“At a time when the world is focused on racial justice, compounded by a pandemic that has disproportionately upended Black, Latino, and underserved communities, it is critical for companies — as the engines of economic opportunity and prosperity — to play a leading role in building a more equitable future for all.”
Rosanna shares in a passionate and compelling way about such an important area. At Lever, we are involved in a project in the United Kingdom, where we are supporting a diversity and inclusion program, which flies in the face of reports indicating that such diversity and inclusion programs are failing.
It is not the programs that are failing; it is that the firms do not support the programs with proper learning transfer and behavioural change processes. For this project, we have deployed three levels of behavioural change support – with staff working with our chatbot Coach M, the senior management team working with both a human coach and Coach M and the executive team working with the human coach. These three approaches enable us to deliver change across the organisation working with budget and time constraints.
The LinkedIn report states that almost half (48 percent) of all Black professionals are in a work environment where they do not feel they have an ally in the workplace. As such, these professionals then feel isolated, which obviously can impact job performance, which then causes those professionals to be overlooked when it comes time for promotion.
Creating demonstrable behavioural shifts as part of Diversity and Inclusion initiative is essential. Making people aware of their biases alone is not enough to shift the dial and address the current challenge of a lack of equity, diversity and inclusion in our workplaces. By not providing the proper transfer of learning support, companies can, and are pointing to reports about failing diversity programs that suggest that they are wasting their time. They become self-prophesising; not fully investing in a program of diversity and inclusion, supported by a dedicated approach to learning transfer, creates an environment where diversity and inclusion fail.
The Bad
The “bad” is not a criticism of what the report says, but rather a criticism of the environment being reported upon.
In the LinkedIn report, two pages prior to the details regarding diversity and inclusion, a page headlined “Making the case for creativity “suggests that creativity in the workplace has taken a backseat to other skills since the arrival of the coronavirus and the pandemic. As the report states: “In 2019 and 2020, creativity took the top spot on the list of most in-demand soft skills that companies need. While it’s always interesting to see what tops a list, it’s equally important to see what lands at the bottom. This year, when Linkedin asked L&D pros which skills employees would need most in 2021, creativity was dead last.” The report urges readers not to “write off creativity.”
We believe the coronavirus has caused some company leaders to operate out of fear rather than seizing an opportunity. We mustn’t forget about creativity. The ability to think outside the box is what often propels the best problem-solving results. It is also the one area of our world that cannot (yet) be handled by artificial intelligence.
Creativity can be the determining factor in employee selection. While any number of candidates can provide the digital fluency that is so necessary in the modern workplace, it is the creative soul that can see the benefits of one digital manoeuvre over another. In a way, you might prioritise digital possibilities over digital fluency, taking advantage of the creativity within the workforce to move forward in a way that sets you apart from the competition.
The Strange
“This is the year that employee surveys enter the learning measurement mix” shouts one-page headline in the LinkedIn Learning report. If this is true, it’s a worry!
Employee surveys are NOT, in my view, a new way to measure learning. We have been measuring the success of our programs through employee surveys since 2005, having over 80% of learners feedback, 12 weeks after attending training. I can only think that this section of a report is a drive towards the acquisition of Glint by LinkedIn in 2018.
What has changed is that measuring evaluation of learning has never been easier because of the sheer amount of data available to us. At Lever, we’ve experienced firsthand the benefits that shifting our approach towards digital tools for learning transfer has given us. Our own chatbot, Coach M, collects data from interactions and responses with learners about learning outcomes, anticipated barriers and progress. Although Coach M’s capabilities, initial design, extends well beyond measuring employee learning success, it certainly has that capability, and it takes survey tools to a new level.
In summation…
The Linkedin Workplace Learning Report is a valuable collection of information regarding both learning and the transfer of learning in the corporate realm. Sometimes it’s an overview that skips over details or just skims the surface of a topic, but regardless it’s a great place to start a conversation.
If you’d like to have a chat with us here at Lever about any of the topics raised in this article or the Linkedin Learning report, we are always interested in conversations that forward learning and drive better outcomes. We look forward to hearing from you.