Dive Brief:
- Mentorship may begin to take a foothold this year, according to a Jan. 3 report by the Association for Talent Development. About half of the organizations ATD surveyed said they had a formal mentorship program in place and of those who didn’t, 42% said they’re planning to implement one in the next few years.
- Another notable trend: virtual mentoring jumped from 39% to 64% between 2017 and 2022. Still, the most common form of mentoring remained in-person, one-on-one chats; 78% of respondents told ATD as much.
- Researchers found that mentoring programs primarily focused on career development and leadership. Additionally, 23% of respondents offering mentorship programs had four or more in motion.
Dive Insight:
These findings — indicating a modest but notable increase in employer interest — are on par with previous research from ATD. In its 2022 State of the Industry report, published last month, researchers noted that spending on learning and development increased slightly between 2020 and 2021.
ATD’s data suggests that instructor-led classroom learning — think one 8-hour-long day of training — makes up a third of L&D available to employees and accessed by talent (28% and 30%, respectively). Both metrics were up in 2021 after a dip in 2020. In turn, virtual instructor-led classroom training, both that which was available and accessed by staff, was down 35% year over year.
This may be due in part to return-to-work mandates, as well as the slow return of on-site retreats or the occasional all-hands work day within a hybrid work arrangement.
