The current economic scenario is putting more pressure on corporate budgets, resulting in learning and development (L & D) professionals facing increasing challenges to drive efficiency and improve business performance. The UK’s recent largest learning technology benchmark study, the Towards Maturity Study 2011, revealed that the majority of UK employers (at 77 per cent) are increasing their current spend in learning technologies so as to respond better to changing business conditions and build talent, an increase of 11 per cent from 2010. Fifty-five per cent of organisations in this study agreed that face-to-face classroom courses are no longer the only option for improving skills and performance in the workplace. The in-depth study drew on responses from 600 organisations − 57 per cent of which were in the private sector, 30 per cent in the public sector, and 13 per cent from the not-for-profit sector.

Learning and development technology refers to those technologies that support the advancement of employee skills in the workplace, from entry-level employees to corporate executives. These include learning management systems, learning and development strategies, executive coaching, and any number of other technologies designed to support business strategies and align employees to them.

Top reasons reported in this study for the adoption of learning technologies include supporting organisational change, increasing productivity and complying with the changing regulatory environment. Other reasons were to improve induction (79 per cent), employee engagement (78 per cent) and talent management (68 per cent) as well as to increase access to learning (89 per cent), increase flexibility (85 per cent), improve quality of learning (84 per cent), reduce training costs (83 per cent) and extend the reach of training (82 per cent). The study also found that learning technologies are helping businesses to reduce proven competency time by 35 per cent, improve product and processes changes by 33 per cent as well as roll-out new IT systems faster by 33 per cent.

E-learning courses (89 per cent) and online surveys and questionnaires (76 per cent) remained the most widely used technologies among organisations in 2011, followed by virtual meetings (65 per cent). On the other hand, the adoption of mobile technology was positioned at the bottom of the list; however its use increased by 10 per cent when compared to last year to reach 39 per cent in 2011, the study found. Moreover, seven out of 10 organisations were using learning content that had been created and customised in-house, while 16 per cent stated that the use of learning technologies was well embedded in their organisations − up from 12 per cent last year.

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.”

Despite being hit hard by the recession in the last two years, with production levels down and falling sales, the automotive industry managed to keep innovating with competitive advantage by looking beyond the classroom to new learning models and the media. In fact, there has been a notable decrease in the amount of face-to-face traditional classroom training coupled with an increase in blended and online learning. On average, 45 per cent of all learning in the automotive sector is face-to-face, 41 per cent is blended and 14 per cent is entirely online. Compared to other industries, the automotive sector has been engaging a higher percentage of staff with e-learning (69 per cent v 57 per cent), reporting greater saving in study time (27 per cent v 22 per cent) and finding greater improvements in staff satisfaction and engagement (11 per cent v 8 per cent).

Finally, 64 per cent of participants in this benchmark study reported that they would be allocating a greater proportion of their overall training budget to learning technologies over the next two years. However, in spite of this, Laura Overton, managing director of Towards Maturity, expressed her concern: “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 that 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.”

So what is hindering organisations from not using learning technologies to their full potential? This year’s benchmark study reported more barriers to the full adoption of learning technologies when compared to 2010, with the top barrier remaining the same; that is the skills, knowledge and confidence to adopt new ways of learning. In fact, in the last three years the top barriers were related to the knowledge, skills and confidence of the L & D team, the reluctance of management to adopt new ways of learning and the perceptions that their learners are not ready and willing for technology. To sum it all up, the top five barriers to successful adoption in 2011 were found to be: lack of knowledge use and implementation 62 per cent, lack of skills among employees to manage own learning 62 per cent, lack of skills of training staff to implement e-learning 61 per cent, reluctance by line managers 55 per cent (59 per cent 2010), and finally unreliable ICT (54 per cent up from 51 per cent), which is double the number of businesses that are concerned about insufficient access to IT in 2011 compared with 2010.

Technology is changing the way organisations operate, serve customers, and develop new products and services. It is also changing dramatically the way HR is organised and delivered, as well as the expectations of return on investment for that technology. Learning technologies not only help businesses to keep pace with and meet the demands of a complex environment but it also helps to provide HR with a competitive advantage. And as Michael Marquardt and Deborah Wadilll well argued in their book The E-HR advantage: The Complete Handbook for Technology Enabled Human Resources: “Individually, HR professionals must understand HR-related technologies in order to have credibility. Professionals cannot lead where they cannot understand the tools of the trade. This does not mean that HR professionals must programme instruction, design websites or manage technology implementation efforts. HR leaders must be knowledgeable about technologies that can benefit the practice of HR in their organisations. This lends credibility to the HR department and earns it a more prominent role in strategising and making executive decisions.”

Ms Camilleri is a researcher at the Foundation for Human Resources Development (FHRD)