Learning Health Check: initial findings

The Learning Health Check is a benchmarking tool for L&D professionals to assess their organisation’s learning strategy and compare it with other organisations and competitors. In addition, an annual report is produced from the research showing how our sector is progressing with learning technology.

The 2020 survey is open until 31 December and the next report is due out in May 2021. In the mean time Learning News caught up with Nahdia Khan from Emerald Works at the end of this exceptional year to get an early indication of how the dramatic changes taking place in learning are being reflected in this year's data.

2020 initial findings include:

• Spend on learning and development is up.
• Dramatic increase in the use of learning technology.
• Proportion of L&D spend on learning tech increased to 31%.
• Shift from compliance to building capability.
• Data analytics growing at a quicker pace than in previous years.
• Improvement to the strategic behaviour of L&D, reversing recent trend.

Nahdia Khan points out: “Organisations are spending more than ever on learning and development with 31% of that going on learning technologies. There's a steady shift from compliance towards building the capability of organisations to solve problems. It is also clear that learning and operational development’s overall strategic behaviour, as measured by the Emerald Works index, has improved and is on a good trajectory after falling for three years.”

The Learning Health Check is available for L&D professionals to complete until 31 December and takes around 40 minutes.