Why Won’t You Let Your Workers Learn?

by CoSo

September 24, 2018

From time to time, we like to survey American’s workers on all kinds of topics related to virtual training and collaboration in the workplace.

Most recently, we discovered 98% of workers consider company-sponsored education important for their on-the-job training and overall professional development.

Unfortunately, our latest survey suggests this deep desire to learn is all for naught: A third of workers say their employers offer no sponsored learning, no incentives to learn, and not even encouragement to learn on their own time. No in-house training. No external webinars. Nothing.

The good news is 67% of respondents do experience company sponsored learning or encouragement to learn, including many forms of learning such as internal training sessions, external webinars and the like. But only 35% are encouraged to attend business/trade conferences where deeper learning and important networking can occur. And only 37% are encouraged to learn on their own by signing up for online classes or weekend workshops or simply reading about their space.

What’s the point, some employers may ask. You can lead a horse to water, they may start to say. The point is this:

Not only do nearly all of the workers we surveyed believe job-related education is important, 58% say they spend at least an hour per week learning on their own. This despite only 21% reporting that they’re often reimbursed for any education related costs. (48% say they’re never reimbursed at all.)

This despite many experts agreeing that establishing a dynamic learning culture within the enterprise is critical to maintain competitiveness in today’s information-driven age. Not only does educating your workers help keep them happy (and less likely to leave), productive, and profit-driving, it can prevent costly mistakes—like turning off an important customer or creating a reputational disaster on social media.

Come on, employers! It’s time to start feeding your workers’ hunger for knowledge—knowledge that can translate into higher productivity, higher profitability, and greater overall success of your business. Contacting CoSo Cloud to see how we can support your virtual training needs is a great first step.

To download the infographic from our survey results, Click here.