Top 6 Corporate L&D Challenges To Watch In 2024

The world of employment is changing rapidly, and organizations are adapting themselves to the transformation to skill-based hiring that emphasizes a candidate's competencies and skill sets, driving the need for corporate learning and development initiatives. According to Gartner HR Research, 58% of the workforce demands new skill sets to help employees excel in their respective roles. In fact, HR Managers, and business leaders (Page: 089) are investing 47% of their expenditure in skill-based learning and development and 36% in skill-based hiring. 

While many HR professionals and L&D specialists face challenges in terms of recruiting new talent and investing in robust learning and development training programs, it is important to identify the non-obvious skill adjacencies, increase the transparency of employee skill sets, and streamline the learning strategies to encourage a flexible work progression. In order for your team to strategically work in the organization and focus on employee retention, you must be ready to tackle the challenges head-on. 

Although the new learning opportunities are significant, your organization must be aware of the learning and development challenges during the training process before jumping right in. 

So what are the L&D challenges holding companies back today and how do we resolve them efficiently?

Top 6 Corporate Learning and Development Challenges Faced in 2024

According to the survey conducted by Harvard Business Review, about 75% of the 1,500 managers highlighted their dissatisfaction with their company’s learning and development function.

So what exactly is going wrong with the learning and development initiatives? How do I overcome the training challenges?

Worry not! We’ve got you covered! Here are the top 6 corporate learning and development challenges L&D teams have been facing:

1. Dealing With The Change

Big-time changes happen in organizations all the time–like merging with another company, implementing new technology, or cutting costs on traditional tools and software. According to Gartner, nearly 91% of businesses are jumping on the digital bandwagon, with 87% of the senior leaders prioritizing digitalization.

While these changes leave a positive impact on the organization’s success, it can be tough for corporate trainers to adapt to change management, especially when they constantly strive to provide the best training to their employees. 

Since L&D experts and instructional designers are the backbone of the corporate training culture, they consistently evolve with market trends and try to identify ways to handle their team members and keep everyone on the same page. However, this presents the major challenge of adapting to the changes in training programs. So, how do I resolve this?

Solution:

As an L&D professional, you can team up with the business leaders to craft a clear message on the changes happening in the organization. Communicate with your employees to explain the reason behind the developmental changes. Create a training program with a clear tone, intention, and purpose. By working with different team members, you gain a broader perspective of the transformation and thus tailor your training and development strategies accordingly.

2. Stepping Up The Training Game

As companies continue to diversify and adapt to market trends, many organizations have realized the importance of L&D experts in tackling training and development initiatives. The LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2019, states that it is not only employers who value L&D initiatives. Approximately 94% of employees believe that valuable training would contribute to their long-term employment in the company.

So with the growing demand for remote workforces, L&D teams are also challenged with tackling employee shortage challenges, racial injustices, affinity biases, and digital transformation. 

Solution:

Partner with the leaders to understand the organizational changes. This would help you craft targeted training programs for your coworkers. Nobody likes a training module that feels and looks like a long, boring lecture. Employees are caught up with work! So, offer bite-sized, easily digestible training modules that would help them learn on the go. Gamify the learning journey with surveys, quizzes, and puzzles, and ensure your training materials are easy to access.

But, as an L&D expert, you must follow the path of continuous learning and upskilling yourself. Attend workshops, and corporate learning and development conferences, get certifications, and explore new LMS and course-authoring tools out there to enhance the corporate learning experience for your employees with the best LMS out there!

3. Usage Of Data

Imagine you're a trainer at a company. There's a ton of information available–from training apps, employee performance scores, and even surveys. The trick is turning all that data into something useful to make your training programs even better.

This means understanding the data (like a detective!), and how it connects to the company's bigger goals. But there's a twist: you also need to be super careful about keeping employee information private. It's like finding the right balance between using all this information and making sure you follow workplace etiquette and maintain confidentiality.

Solution:

Ultimately, as an L&D professional, you must discretely use the data and make informed decisions based on the numbers. By knowing your audience, thinking about the big picture, and leveraging your technical acumen, you can step up the game of corporate learning and development. 

4. Remote Workplace

The shift to remote and hybrid work models presents exciting opportunities for L&D teams, but also unique challenges. According to Forbes, around 12.7% of employees work from home, while 28.2% of them work in a hybrid mode. This drastic transition forces L&D experts to think strategically and come up with unique initiatives to keep learners engaged.

Solution: 

As a corporate trainer, you must replace the traditional learning methods to accommodate workforce training dispersed across different time zones and locations. This means, creating a new learning experience that is not just remotely accessible, but also engaging and retaining the learners’ attention. 

It is important to balance the demands of both remote and on-site learners, ensuring seamless planning and execution. This would help you provide a quality training experience that results in job satisfaction and improves overall work productivity.

5. Managing the Budget

According to the 2020 Training Industry Report, large US-based companies spend an average of $82.5 billion in training expenditures. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations hit rock bottom in terms of their expenditures, which resulted in cutting down on additional expenses.

While L&D professionals are obliged to justify their expenditures and prove the ROI from corporate learning and development initiatives, they can face many challenges in identifying the benefits that include improved employee performance, engagement and long-term retention.

Solution: 

While creating an L&D budget, consider the number of team members existing and expected. Figure out the best LMS/LXP tools for delivering a rigorous training program. Determine the cost of developing or purchasing the content from the LMS platform. Finally, calculate the administrative needs and travel or accommodation expenses (if any). 

6. Ensuring Learner Engagement

According to the Key Blanchard 2021 Trends Report, learner engagement is identified as one of the most important areas for improvement in virtual training. Even Gallup’s 2023 State of the Workforce Reports show that only 11% of employees feel engaged at work. Even more shockingly, Axonify’s recent study shows that this number can further decrease if the employees feel that the training is irrelevant or don’t receive formal job training. 

Solution:

With humans having an attention span of less than a goldfish, training experts must create fragments of learning modules that keep the learners engaged and active, despite the environmental distractions. 

The TalentLMS survey shows that 83% of workers who receive gamified training experience feel motivated to work as compared to 61% of those who feel bored and unproductive at work without any gamified learning experience. So, the trick here is– as a corporate learning and development expert, you must incorporate interactive and multimedia elements into your training modules, thus boosting employee productivity and engagement. 

Things To Keep In Mind While Incorporating Corporate Learning and Development Initiatives

Organizations that listen to their employees succeed better and thrive faster. The key here? Implement a corporate training program that caters to the needs of your learners. Some of the main points to keep in mind are:

• Figure out the skills gap
• Secure the resources
• Identify the best training methods
• Ensure employee engagement and retention
• Measure the training effectiveness
• Gather timely feedback from learners
• Foster a continuous learning environment
• Manage resistance to the changes
• Bridge the theory-to-practice gap
• Recognize learning achievements and milestones

Embrace Corporate Learning and Development With Flexible LMS Platform

L&D teams have their work cut out for them! One of their biggest challenges is getting everyone on board with new computer programs and digital ways of working. But the good news here is, that L&D professionals can use these new technologies to their advantage by creating even better training programs. 

Calibr LXP is one of the best LMS platforms that allows corporate trainers, HR managers, instructional designers, and L&D experts to seamlessly provide employee training and keep track of the learning progress through LMS. Use drag-and-drop features to add audio, videos, images, and listicles to your content, control user access and permissions, collaborate with the team, and measure the learner's progress. 

With AI-powered course authoring tools, you can now create an entire training module within minutes. Use Calibr Craft to design courses, access free course templates, and add interactive elements to make your content modules more intriguing and engaging for your learners. Yes, you can do all of that. We are not kidding! Try out for free today! Schedule a demo to learn more about the tool now!

FAQs

1. What's the biggest challenge for L&D when companies change how they work?

Helping employees understand "why" things are changing and making sure they get trained on the new ways of working.

2. It seems like there's a lot of data available for training. Why is it still a challenge?

Turning all that data into something useful! L&D needs to understand the data and how it connects to the company's goals, all while keeping employee information private.

3. How can companies keep employees engaged in training, especially when they're remote?

By making training shorter, more interactive, and more relevant to their jobs. Think bite-sized lessons, games, and real-world scenarios!

4. My company is thinking about starting a training program. What are some common roadblocks?

Figuring out what skills employees need to learn, securing resources like budget and time, and choosing the right training method (like online vs in-person).

5. Training sounds great, but how do we know if it's working?

Corporate learning and development professionals need to measure the impact of training to see if employees actually learned new skills and if it helped the company achieve its goals.

6. What is the biggest challenge in a training and development setting?

The biggest challenge for L&D professionals in a training setting is often keeping learners engaged and motivated. This can be especially difficult with traditional lecture-style learning or when training remote employees. Learners today crave interactive experiences that are relevant to their jobs. So it is important to provide them with opportunities to apply their newly acquired knowledge and skills in a corporate setting through training.