Dive Brief:

• "Too many learning teams are waiting around taking orders for learning development," and this is not the best use of resources, says Dan Pontefract, who writes for Chief Learning Officer. 
• Research from Oxford Economics highlights that half of employees don't believe they have the right work skills that will be relevant in 3 years. Around 66% don't think their employers will provide this training. Around 47% of all jobs are expected to be replaced by technology in the next 20 years, so employees are worried their skills will become obsolete — adding to poor employee engagement. A Gallup poll puts employee engagement at around 32% in most workplaces. 
• Jane Hart, founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, says that, "CLOs need to break out of old molds of trying to run traditional learning and development departments and instead support all the methods that employees engage in learning." 

Dive Insight:

Employee engagement levels are beginning to increase, according to recent reports from several industry leading sources. However, millennials are changing the very definition of engagement to include the overall experience they have as a result of the corporate culture. Learning plays a large part of this, as a strong learning program can help employees feel supported as they try new things. "Investing" in employees is key to a good culture, and learning programs are one way to express that investment.

In turn, if CLOs want to gain a foothold in the professional development of this generation of workers and connect learning to performance and career growth, then a renewed focus on culture must take place.