Towards Maturity study reveals how businesses are increasingly investing in learning technologies to become more agile in new economic climate
The UK’s largest learning technology benchmark study reveals 77% of companies believe that learning technologies will help them respond faster to changing business conditions.
LONDON, November 10 2011 - The UK's largest learning technology
benchmark study has revealed how organisations are increasing their
investment in learning technologies to help them respond faster to
changing business conditions and build talent.
The in-depth Towards Maturity Benchmark Study is in its eighth
year and includes the data of 1800 organisations in the private,
public and not-for-profit sectors. A record 600 organisations
participated in this year's study. The study findings were revealed
this morning in a joint Towards Maturity and Learning and Skills
Group webinar.
The research findings revealed a staggering 77% of companies
believe that learning technologies will help them respond faster to
changing business conditions, an increase of 11% from 2010.
Learning technologies are helping organisations reduce proven
competency time by 35%, roll-out new IT systems faster by 33% and
improve product and processes changes by 33%.
With 64% of participants expected to allocate a greater proportion
of their overall training budget to learning technologies in the
next two years. Towards Maturity's research findings revealed how
L&D professionals are looking at learning technologies to
increase access to learning 89%, increase flexibility 85%, improve
quality of learning 84%, reduce training costs 83% and extend the
reach of training 82%.
Craig McCoy, HR Director, Bupa Health and Wellbeing who
participated in the Benchmark Study said, "It is time to move
learning technologies up the value curve. If HR is looking to
establish a credible relationship with the business, we can't
afford to ignore the tangible business benefits illustrated by this
report. Investment in innovative learning approaches facilitates
business agility and can support business generation, improve
customer service and increase organisational efficiency."
Organisations are using learning technologies to improve induction
79%, employee engagement 78% and talent management 68%. In
contrast, 60% of managers are not giving employees' time to
learn.
The study also highlights how 55% of organisations agree that
face-to-face classroom courses are no longer the only option for
improving skills and performance in the workplace. In the current
fast changing environment 78% of organisations are now using
technology to improve the sharing of effective learning methods
between staff, using a variety of platforms including social
networks, video and mobile phones.
Laura Overton, Managing Director of Towards Maturity said,
"Despite the growing investment in learning technologies, a
shocking percentage of organisations are not using their learning
technologies to their full potential. I urge the learning industry
to download our free report and learn from their peers. Our
research study has highlighted those organisations that are mature
users of learning technologies are twice as likely to be more
agile, efficient and have significantly better talent management
processes."
The 600 organisations that participated in the study received a
complimentary personalised benchmark report. Within the report is a
Towards Maturity Index (TMI) figure that provides organisations
with a benchmark measurement of how well they have implemented
their learning technologies, across six work streams of good
practice. Towards Maturity has identified companies in the top
quartile of the scale are twice as likely to report improvements in
agility, influencing business impact and improving opportunities
for talent management than the average company.
The Towards Maturity 2011 Benchmark Study 60 page report is
available to download for free at towardsmaturity.org/2011benchmark
thanks to Towards Maturity's Ambassadors, 16 leading learning
organisations. They work together as Ambassadors for change,
identifying and improving good practice, raising awareness and
driving the whole learning industry forward.
The Towards Maturity Ambassador Programme includes the following
founding ambassadors Brightwave, Epic, GlobalEnglish, LINE
Communications, LMMatters, SuccessFactors, REDTRAY and The Charity
Learning Consortium, plus CERTPOINT Systems, Speex, SkillSoft,
Fusion-Universal, Information Transfer, learndirect, e2train and
Toolwire.
Notes to editors:
The 2011 Benchmark Study research was conducted online from June
6th to August 16th 2011 by 600 organisations.
Other research findings include:
• Participant demographics - 600 organisations participated from
private (57%), public (30%) and not for profit (13%) sectors
• 66% UK of participants are from the UK
• Employers are investing 18% of budgets in learning
technologies
• The e-learning course is no longer the only technology learning
offering, technologies now in use within learning include:
o mobile learning (39%)
o Virtual meeting/classroom (77%)
o Social media (41%)
o Video (61%)
o Cloud technology (20%)
o Skills diagnostics (41%)
• 26% of all formal learning programmes are now e-enabled in some
way