3 employee training trends to note for Hong Kong employers – Human Resources Online
Digital training is the future, while reskilling and upskilling remain key to develop and retain talents.
Brain drain, skill gaps, ageing population, etc. are all urging businesses to ramp up their investment in employee coaching and development (T& D) to equip their existing talent pool and ensure a sustainable talent pipeline, according to the latest survey published by the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (HKIHRM).
Even though the COVID-19 pandemic had induced sluggish economic recovery, the study found that training enjoyed a revival over the past year. More than two-thirds (68%) of the responding organisations experienced a budget earmarked for employee teaching and advancement. The actual spending on education against employee total annual base salaries increased from 1 . 3% in 2020 to 1. 9% in 2021, and the instruction budget against employee total annual base salaries also adjusted upwards from 2. 5% in order to 2 . 8% from 2020 to 2021.
Furthermore, the particular average yearly training hours per worker in Hk rose to 14. 1 in 2021 from 12. 9 in 2020.
The business services/professional services sector was the only sector which exceeded the average, by a margin of 1 percentage point at second . 9%. The construction/real estate property development field took second place in one 9%, with the other sectors lagging behind.
“As the labour market was particularly impacted by brain drain due to the exodus associated with expat plus local skills, a remarkable chunk T& D spending went to hiring their replacements and developing them to unleash their full potential, ” commented Dr. Chester Tsang, Executive Council Member of the HKIHRM and Co-chairperson of the Learning and Development Committee .
“The ‘Great Resignation’ phenomenon is here to stay, organisations are recommended to hike up their own investment within T& D to provide their current talent swimming pool. ”
The survey has identified three key trends in employee learning plus development as follows.
Reskilling and upskilling are important to skill retention and succession planning
Of the particular 102 organisations which provided data in 2021, almost 50% (47%) of them stated that it was very important in order to reskill plus upskill employees. Furthermore, 44% acknowledged that will it has been quite important to do so.
The top three benefits of reskilling and upskilling employees were:
- Prepare for organisation growth (82%)
- Promote talent retention (65%)
- Reduce skills gap (55%)
“As the local talent pool shrinks through factors such as emigration and an aging population, reskilling and upskilling to enable talent preservation and succession planning are at the forefront associated with employers’ mind, ” commented Dr. Barry Ip, Vice President from the HKIHRM plus Co-chairperson of the Learning and Development Committee .
Digital training is the future
The trend of companies adopting digital learning technology continued to be particularly notable, with 94% from the 109 companies who offered data within 2021 partaking this trend. The figure far surpassed the mean of the particular past decade (65%), pointing towards the fact that electronic training may be the future.
Close to half (45%) of the companies which responded upped their investing on digital learning in 2021 compared with 2020, indicating the mass appeal of digital learning. Doctor. Tsang considered that electronic learning’s popularity was unwavering as work from home had become a permanent policy for many organisations across sectors.
“New trends within digital exercising from metaverse to boarding games will unlock new T& Deb strategies in order to heighten employees’ interest in studying, ” he added.
The particular top 3 types associated with digital understanding platforms had been:
- Webinars/virtual classrooms (74%)
- Training videos (59%)
- Digital learning portal/e-library (48%)
However, the use of digital tools to deliver schooling did come with its fair share of challenges. The top three challenges were:
- Less interaction between trainer and staff (57%)
- Distractions (53%)
- Lack of networking conversation for participants (48%)
The pandemic gave rise to brand new learning contents
Of the particular 109 organisations which supplied data in 2021, 81% acknowledged that the delivery of worker training had been at least somewhat disrupted from the outbreak. Among all the reacting companies, 64% introduced new learning material in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The best three brand new learning items introduced were:
- Health and safety during COVID-19 (64%)
- Supporting employees’ mental health (55%)
- Organising virtual class training (42%)
“The top three coaching areas with regard to senior management were almost all in the strategic management category, reflecting that will change plus innovation topped organisations’ T& D agenda, ” said Dr . Ip.
“As the particular work environment was within a state associated with flux from factors such as the pandemic and the great resignation, how to develop company strategies in nimble response was the question the particular C-suite needed to answer well. ”
Conducted through March in order to May 2022, HKIHRM’s 2021 Training and Advancement Needs Survey covered 116 companies across 20 business plus industry sectors with 74, 400 full-time employees approximately.
Image / Unsplash
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