The great resignation caught many people’s attention in 2021. And with good reason, as we saw employees resign in record numbers around the world. However, while the great resignation continues to make waves, 2022 may be better known as the year of the great re-evaluation. 

In many ways, the great re-evaluation is a natural progression from the great resignation, as employees begin to re-evaluate what work means in the broader context of their lives. During this period of re-evaluation, factors such as flexibility, hybrid working arrangements, burnout, fatigue, and mental health support are all growing priorities, often supplanting traditional expectations such as salary and upward mobility. 

With this in mind, we’ll take a detailed look at the great re-evaluation. We’ll start by asking what the great re-evaluation is, before analysing the factors that may come to define this trend.

Ready to re-evaluate what work means to you? Read on. 

The great re-evaluation is a natural extension of the great resignation. The factors that contributed to the great resignation, such as long hours leading to burnout, inflexible working arrangements, and a lack of mental health support, did not exist in a vacuum. Rather, these factors caused employees to re-evaluate what they want in a job and what work means in the broader context of their lives.

As Adecco put it in a recent report analysing the great re-evaluation, “​​people need to see and feel opportunity. During the last 12 months, people have become more autonomous, agile, adaptable and proactive taking it upon themselves to get new skills. They are ready for change, and they are looking for more agency, career development, mobility opportunities or upskilling and reskilling into the next chapters.”

Similarly, in an interview with Human Resource Executive, IBM CHRO Nickle LaMoreaux urges companies to “look closely at what the Great Resignation is really all about: Employees are taking ownership over what they want from their careers, where and when they want to work, how they want their personal goals and professional purpose to align…it’s their Great Re-evaluation.” 

It should come as no surprise that many employees are re-evaluating what they want from a job, especially after COVID-19 dramatically reshaped working arrangements for many companies. Suddenly, hybrid work was the norm, and employees had the chance to ask themselves a few vital questions. How does work fit into my life? Why can’t I have a hybrid working arrangement all the time? Do I need to re-evaluate my work-life balance? Should my company offer more wellbeing support? A lot of the time, employees didn’t like the answers they found. So, they decided it was time for a change.

For instance, 54% of people say they feel overworked, while a massive 95% of human resource leaders say employee burnout sabotages their retention efforts. Moreover, 62% of employees feel overwhelmed by work responsibilities, and 32% say they are emotionally drained at work. Plus, 69% of people feel fatigued at work.

Worryingly, these statistics are only the tip of the iceberg. Research by Limeade found that 40% of employees left their jobs due to burnout during the great resignation. Other common reasons for quitting during the great resignation include: their company was going through organisational changes (34%), lack of flexibility (20%), contributions not being valued (20%), insufficient benefits (19%), and wellbeing not being supported by their company (16%). In the wake of these concerns, it makes sense that employees would need to re-evaluate what work means to them. Is their job really worth the stress and burnout? 

Finally, it’s important to note the great re-evaluation is not limited to employees. Businesses must also re-evaluate. Now that these concerns are out in the open, the onus is on companies to reconsider their expectations and address employees' concerns. Those that fail to adapt risk losing their best talent as they seek opportunities elsewhere.

What factors are contributing to the great re-evaluation? 

The factors contributing to the great re-evaluation are manifold. From burnout to fatigue to inflexible working arrangements, many workers have decided enough is enough. At the same time, adjustments caused by COVID-19 have opened many people’s eyes to new ways of working.

For example, 76% of employees now want flexibility for where they work, and 93% want flexibility over when they work. What’s more, 41% of employees say they would look for another job if they had to return to the office full time.

These new expectations have led to a disconnect. Adecco finds that 53% of people want to spend more time working from home, yet, only 39% expect they will be allowed to spend more time working from home. Similarly, a Future Forum Pulse global survey found that executives who work remotely are 3x more likely than employees to prefer returning to the office full-time. In contrast, 76% of employees don’t want to return to the office full time. 

Disconnects such as these between what employees want and what managers want are driving the great re-evaluation. If companies fail to recognise these disconnects and adjust their expectations, employees will seek opportunities that better align with their hybrid work preferences.

As a result, many workers are crying out for greater flexibility. According to Adecco, “workers want to shift from hours to an outcome-based culture.” Yet, only 36% of non-managers feel their managers assess their performance based on results. Due to this, many employees feel underappreciated. They can't help but wonder: if they aren't being judged on their output, are they in the office simply for the sake of turning up? Given this, a whopping 80% of people believe that increased flexibility around hybrid working would benefit both employers and employees.

Another key factor influencing the great re-evaluation is the belief that it will lead to a fairer and more equitable workplace. Adecco finds that 75% of people believe flexible/hybrid working arrangements will create more opportunities for people with disabilities. Likewise, 73% say it will create more opportunities for working parents, and 69% believe it will create more opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds.

However, the biggest contributing factor to the great re-evaluation is employee burnout. A massive 67% of non-managers say their leaders don't meet their expectations for checking on their mental wellbeing. On the other hand, 51% of managers say they find it challenging to identify when staff are struggling with overwork or burnout. Again, a disconnect arises: 77% of managers say they are satisfied with their performance, compared to just 57% of employees who are happy with their manager’s performance. 

What’s more, Gallup found that 57% of workers experienced daily stress, while 38% say they have suffered from burnout during the last 12 months. No wonder many employees have chosen to prioritise their mental health and re-evaluate how much they are willing to put up with at work. As a result, 74% of employees want their company to focus more on staff wellbeing.

As Adecco puts it, “companies must re-evaluate how they can better support and provide wellbeing resources to their employees within the new hybrid working model. Building pro-wellbeing working environments, cultures and skillsets from top to bottom will be key in the next normal.”  

Ultimately, the great re-evaluation is being driven by an array of factors — from flexibility to burnout to increased opportunities for traditionally marginalised workers. However, the connective tissue is that many workers have re-evaluated what work means to them and how work fits into their lives. 

For a significant portion of the workforce, the answer is that work is no longer their number one priority — especially if it is detrimental to their mental wellbeing or a healthy work-life balance. Rather than shaping their lives around work, employees are now shaping work around their lives. Companies must recognise this trend and answer the call for greater flexibility and increased wellbeing support. Or, they can risk getting left behind in the great re-evaluation.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can support your team’s learning needs.

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We’ll take a detailed look at the great re-evaluation, asking what the great re-evaluation is, before analysing the factors that may define this trend.

Why the great re-evaluation could define work in 2022 

Go1 Love of Learning Series: Three Key Attributes to Driving Learner Engagement  

Go1's Craig Hamill and Merrissa Pires, Global Head of Learning and Development at Reckitt, join forces to discuss the future skills L&D leaders can adopt and perfect to drive further learning engagement. The session kicks off a brand new series of webinars for 2022, the ‘Love of Learning series’ as part of Go1’s mission to get one billion learners to fall in love with learning.  

After a brief introduction on their professional backgrounds and strong passion for learning, Craig and Merrissa begin the session by unpicking the common barriers and challenges that L&D professionals face on a day-to-day level. Quoting insights from the World Economic Forum, including the fact that 55% of businesses are not able to adopt new tech because of local labour skill gaps due to lack of trainings, the hosts conduct a poll with the audience to pinpoint what some of the key challenges might be for them. From a list of eight option answers, the three most popular responses were that ‘Learners don’t make the time’, ‘Lack of Organisational Buy In to learning’ and ‘Learners don’t have the time/ managers don’t allow time’.   

Merrissa makes a simple but definite point as a follow up: ‘people don’t know what they don’t know’ and, when it comes to workplace L&D initiatives, if they are served with too much content, most of the time, employees won’t know where to start. Merrissa feels strongly that trainings should be linked to business objectives in order to be successful at every level. If companies look to stretch their people to reach their best learning potential (rather than burnout!) whilst meeting their business objectives, then they are more likely to have found the key to success.  

The webinar goes on to discuss three key attributes required for L&D practitioners and businesses to drive learner engagement and support future skills, including;  

Both panelists stress the importance of going back to the ‘why’ - ‘What is the problem that we are trying to solve and what is our end goal?’ According to Merrissa, strategy is required for anything to live on sustainably. People are overly stimulated with different data, course options, content etc. and if we don’t try to simplify and streamline, and set goals, it’s not going to stick. If employees are able to understand ‘the why’ and feel empowered to be involved, their engagement will become that much stronger. 

Merrissa takes her workplace, Reckitt, as an example. As a company, which was previously very segmented, Reckitt developed a ‘Stronger Together’ approach in the last few years and created a global L&D function that supported the business strategy as well as bringing everyone together. In the last six months, Reckitt have been collaborating with Go1 to help with their strategy, giving them wider visibility of what approach and tools makes sense for their business. 

Merrissa warns that positive change won’t happen overnight and, that building the right programme and strategy takes time and requires being agile and adaptable. Craig jumps in to stress this point, calling out that L&D strategies shouldn’t be final, they should be able to move and shift according to the environment and needs of those involved.   

To introduce this section, Craig shows the audience the World Economic Forum’s list of Top 10 skills for 2025 which include a range of problem solving, self management, working with people and technology related skill sets. Hosting a new poll, the speakers ask the audience what key skills they think an L&D leader should have. The top responses from those dialed on feature as: ‘being a communicator’, ‘being an influencer’ and ‘being a facilitator of change’. The panelists delve deeper into these attributes and add a few to the mix such as ‘having business acumen for partnerships’ and, ‘being able to wear many hats on the job’ especially in recent years, where L&D/ HR leaders have been expected to widen their remit to navigate radical cultural shifts due to the pandemic.  

The last chapter covers the more social aspect of learning, and how it is important to nurture an environment which facilitates connections. People are now more than ever looking for social interactions and enabling these is a huge factor that will contribute to if / how people will engage in the workplace and with L&D programmes. 

Craig and Merrissa praise ‘learning in the flow of work’, a trend that has been studied more and more these last years, which shows how people can be in a constant state of learning by interacting with their peers in informal settings. Through conversation, social media sharing, brainstorming and ongoing communication, data shows that learning in the flow boosts engagement and provides learners with more exposure to unlocking new skills.  

The webinar ends on a positive note, inviting L&D professionals to share their love of learning and create communities that can explore wider and broader content in a way that is fun and approachable and meaningful.  

Check out the event recording in full here.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Ready to fall in love with learning? In this fun and interactive webinar, Craig Hamill and Merrissa Pires join forces to discuss the future skills L&D leaders can adopt and perfect to drive further learning engagement.

Go1 Love of Learning series: Three key attributes to driving learner engagement  

Pluralsight, leaders in technology workforce development, have announced its partnership with Go1. Together, the companies will deliver a curated content experience designed to help Go1 customers learn the most in-demand technology skills, including those featured in the Pluralsight Technology Index. Premium Go1 subscribers can now access custom content from Pluralsight Skills, enabling them to build skills in specialised technology roles including IT/DevOps, Data Analytics, and Machine Learning.

With this partnership, Pluralsight and Go1 will deliver solutions that help L&D leaders manage the necessary training and development needs of their diverse teams. Go1 customers in any role, including non-technical roles, are now able to access a selection of high-quality technical content on Pluralsight Skills to upskill or reskill their workforce. The partnership also enables joint customers to access the full Pluralsight Skills library through Go1's platform.

Pluralsight is the leading technology workforce development organisation that helps companies and teams build better products by developing critical skills, improving processes and gaining insights through data, and providing strategic skills consulting. Trusted by forward-thinking companies of every size in every industry.

“We are excited to offer our expert-led content within the Go1 eLearning platform to help everyone develop the critical tech skills that are in-demand today. With access to on-demand video courses from Pluralsight Skills, Go1 customers will be able to establish foundational technology competencies across their organisations while enabling those in technical roles to deepen their understanding of today’s latest tech. Pluralsight Skills gives people and teams the necessary tools to develop technology skills more effectively and at scale.”
Ken Leonard, SVP of Global Ecosystem Solutions at Pluralsight.

Pluralsight and Go1 designed the unique offer with the aim to address the global tech skills shortage, which continues to expand. In fact, the Tech Council of Australia has forecasted Australia will need one million people in tech jobs by 2025, meaning approximately 260,000 more people will need to enter the Australian tech workforce in that time.

“Our partnership with Pluralsight creates a critical tech-skilling pathway for Go1 customers to experience the industry’s leading tech courses to join a future-ready workforce.” 
Basem Emera, VP of Partnerships and Alliances at Go1.

This partnership further strengthens the already robust Go1 corporate eLearning platform, adding courses critical for tech upskilling and reskilling. Through Go1’s centralised content library, over 3.5 million corporate learners will have access to custom learning paths from Pluralsight Skills for roles such as Software Developer, Security Professionals, and Agile leaders. Additionally, Pluralsight Skills provides content on technology skills like security, cloud concepts for cloud hosting platforms such as AWS and Azure, and coding languages such as JavaScript and Python.

Integrating some of the most in-demand tech skills courses to our content library in partnership with Pluralsight.

Teaming up with Pluralsight to tackle global tech skills shortage

What content partners should you check out this month?

There’s no time like the present to deepen your knowledge, skills, and commitment in two very important areas: Cyber Security and Diversity & Culture. This month we’re spotlighting three providers with excellent content offerings in these areas. We’ve also published two new playlists of courses designed to spark your curiosity and accelerate your growth.

For clear and compelling courses around data compliance, privacy, and GDPR, Inspired eLearning is a fantastic choice. This award-winning US-based provider has 60+ courses in the Content Hub, half of which are 15 minutes or shorter.  Their video-based courses have interactive knowledge checks throughout, are available in multiple languages, and appeal to both novice and more experienced learners. 

Check out some of the most popular titles from Inspired eLearning: 

Security Awareness – A Day in the Life  

“Internet of Things” & Home Security 

Bob’s Business is a great provider of animated courses on a variety of data security topics. Based in the UK, they offer over 100 courses, almost all of which range from 15-30 minutes. Courses are available in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. Bob’s Business is a good fit for learners who may find cyber security topics a bit daunting or boring. Their whimsical animation and interactive elements engage even the most reluctant learners. 

Information Security and Data Protection 

US-based WILL Interactive is an award-winning provider in the diversity and culture space.  Their courses feature high quality video production and branching scenarios that change depending on the learner’s responses to questions throughout. WILL Interactive has 18 courses in the Content Hub, 12 of which are longer than one hour. They are among the most engaging and popular courses, with positive feedback from learners and administrators alike. 

Common Ground: Sexual Harassment and Abusive Conduct Prevention 

What new content partners have we added to the Content Hub?

This US-based provider offers high-quality courses in architecture, engineering, construction, and manufacturing, along with some general business and leadership courses. 

Their courses feature videos and interactive elements and are available in 43 languages. (That’s right – 43 different languages!) 

Courses range from 10 to 300 minutes, with the majority of them being over 30 minutes. 

Among the 350+ new courses from Vector Solutions are Symbols, Standards, and Schematics; Transporting Hazardous Materials; Use of Steel in Design & Construction; Essentials of Six Sigma; and Work Life Balance. 

This female-owned US-based provider expands topics coverage in several new areas, including digital media, marketing, and cannabis. 

They offer 9 courses, the shortest of which is 1 hour with the longest being 3 hours. 

Among the offerings from Atheneum Collective are Fundamentals of Media Planning; Winning More Business for Media Sellers; Digital Production: Process to Profitability; Cannabis Marketing Master Course; and Cultivating Happiness.  

What great new content have our current content partners added to the Content Hub?

iAM Learning – 8 new personal development courses between 10 and 15 minutes, including titles such as Bring your Whole Self to Work (Authenticity); Recognising Privilege; Taking Responsibility; and Turn off Work Thoughts during Free Time! (UK based) 

Stone River eLearning – 86 new courses, including Python Fundamentals; Effective Bookkeeping and Payroll; Lean Process And Six Sigma; Middle Manager; Telework and Telecommuting; and Top 10 Sales Secrets (US-based) 

What’s Shannon’s favorite course right now? 

As I was looking at the newly added courses, I was intrigued by iAM Learning’s personal development courses, so I took the Bring Your Whole Self to Work course. I love the conversations currently going on in the learning and development space about how we can better support employees and managers by encouraging more open and honest conversations that go beyond who people are at work and their performance. This course offered some great guidance on how to be authentic at work, as well as how to help others be. In my career, the people who have made the biggest impact on my work and personal life have been those who supported me in all aspects of my life and allowed me to be me. I’d encourage this course for anyone needing a little reminder about how we are more than just our job titles.

The Go1 Content Insider is your first stop for all things new in the Go1 Content Hub. In this February update, find out the latest and greatest in the world of content!

The Go1 Content Insider - February 2022 edition

Having effective business alignment within your workplace can really change the flow of business productivity, not just within individual teams but throughout the entire company. But what exactly is it? How do you do it and what can L&D professionals, specifically, get out of adjusting their focus towards business alignment?

Thankfully, episode 25 of the Go1 podcast is now live to answer all these questions! Our host, Go1's Customer Success Director, James Frappell is joined by special guest, Emerging Stronger Co-Creator Laura Overton as they discuss the ins and outs of business alignment as well as telling a few personal stories about how they've seen business alignment in action in the real world.

Enjoy some of the highlights from the conversation below.

Before we can get into how workplaces can have better business alignment, it's important to define what it actually is. Here, Laura Overton provides that definition and explains that business alignment is often the key to success. She then goes on to discuss its relevancy to businesses of all types and sizes from small businesses to large corporations and even not-for-profit organisations.

What is business alignment?

For a number of businesses, the setting of big goals and targets is essential to the success of the company. However, it can be quite easy to be swept up and set so many that the overall effect on the business suffers. Furthermore, how do we find the balance between staying on trend while also ensuring that we don't get carried away with a trend based focus and forget about the value of the delivery?

Laura warns of this and uses her past experiences to explain that when businesses try to do too much all at once, the focus is shifted to delivery rather than on measuring the impact.

Achieving too much too quickly

Sometimes it's the simplest things that can make all the difference for business alignment. Solving an ongoing issue for one team often has knock on effects to other teams, making their lives easier as well.

Laura provides an insightful personal story of a time when she saw effective business alignment in action and encourages people to ask themselves and their teams the question: 'where can I really add value?'

Key conversations for business alignment

If you haven't already, you can listen to the full podcast here to learn more.

Want to hear more? Browse the full Learning with Go1 podcast library on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify to help expand your knowledge of all things L&D. And hear how other organisations are navigating through this ever-evolving landscape.

Having effective business alignment within your workplace can really change the flow of business productivity, not just within individual teams but throughout the entire company. But what exactly is it? And how do you do it? Tune in to episode 25 of the Go1 podcast, featuring L&D analyst Laura Overton, to find out.

Let’s talk business - building courage and confidence for smarter business conversations

Having effective business alignment within your workplace can really change the flow of business productivity, not just within individual teams but throughout the entire company. But what exactly is it? And how do you do it? Tune in to episode 25 of the Go1 podcast, featuring L&D analyst Laura Overton, to find out. 

There’s nothing worse than being stuck in a dead end job with little chance of career progression. Most of us have probably experienced this feeling at one point in our careers. You while away the days until a better offer comes along because you know opportunities for career progression in this job are slim. Much like being stuck in an elevator, it’s a claustrophobic and disheartening feeling. 

Not only that, but a lack of internal mobility is a no-win situation. For employees, a lack of internal mobility can reduce motivation, as they see no clear path to advancement. For employers, it leads to a less driven workforce, thereby reducing engagement and diminishing your ability to attract and retain talent in a competitive hiring market. 

Therefore, it should be no surprise that internal mobility is vital in today's ultra-competitive workforce. We’ll take a closer look at why internal mobility has become a must-have in the modern workforce — particularly with the threat of The Great Resignation looming. We’ll start by looking at the benefits of internal mobility, such as engagement, retention, and cost-effectiveness, before moving on to what businesses are getting wrong about internal mobility. 

While internal mobility has always been an important consideration, it is now essential to engage and retain the best talent. In fact, 51% of L&D professionals say that internal mobility is more of a priority now than it was before COVID. While many factors have influenced this trend, it is likely that The Great Resignation has played a role, as employers scramble to offer more attractive roles or risk losing talented employees. 

With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that 62% of L&D professionals say they are prioritising internal mobility this year. Let’s take a closer look at why internal mobility is such a hot topic. 

Intuitively, it makes sense that a strong culture of internal mobility would boost engagement. Of course employees are more likely to be engaged when they see clear opportunities for career progression. And the statistics bear this out. 

According to data by LinkedIn, employees who move into new jobs internally are 3.5x more likely to be engaged. In their 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report, Deloitte found that 32% of companies believe internal mobility is necessary to increase employee engagement. 

Similarly, a case study by Deloitte found that when Ingersoll Rand developed a “robust internal career program to help employees reskill themselves for new positions within the organisation” the result was a 30% increase in employee engagement. 

In a similar vein, Research by PageUp finds that internal development opportunities such as lateral moves and stretch assignments can increase engagement by up to 30%. 

The message here is clear: a robust internal mobility program can lead to significantly more engaged employees. 

While increased engagement is fantastic, the biggest impact of a strong internal mobility program is on retention. According to LinkedIn, when organisations invest in internal mobility programs, employees stay almost two times longer on average. The median employee tenure for companies with low internal mobility is 2.9 years. For companies with high internal mobility, this skyrockets to 5.4 years. 

In comparison, external hires are 61% more likely to be fired within a year and 21% more likely to quit. Accordingly, it makes sense that 94% of HR professionals say that internal recruiting helps retain their most valuable talent, while 81% added that internal hiring improves retention overall. 

A study of more than 32 million active LinkedIn profiles demonstrates this phenomenon. During their research, SHRM found that, in general, the likelihood of someone staying with a company decreases over time. For example, one year after being hired, there's a 76% chance a worker will still be with the company. After five years, the estimated retention rate drops to 38%. However, employees who are promoted within three years have a 70% chance of staying on board, and those who make a lateral move have a 62% chance of staying. 

Many companies seem to be noticing these trends, as internal hires have increased dramatically since the start of 2020. Between April and August 2019, the percentage of job changes classified as internal movements was 16.5%. During this same period in 2020, internal hires rose sharply to 19.6%.

Since internal mobility promotes higher retention and engagement, it makes sense that it is also a more cost-effective strategy. 

As we know, hiring and onboarding new employees can be costly. Replacing an employee can cost 50-60% of that employee’s salary on average. As Toggl Hire explains, “an average company loses anywhere between 1% and 2.5% of their total revenue on the time it takes to bring a new hire up to speed.” 

Given the average turnover rate for all companies is 19% per year, these costs add up quickly. On the other hand, companies with lower turnover rates bring in four times higher profits on average.

When it comes to internal hiring, companies currently spend just 6% of their recruitment budget on internal candidates. However, these candidates fill 15-20% of job openings. 

By focussing on internal mobility, you’re not only saving on negligible advertising and onboarding costs, but you could also be saving massively in the long run. Consider this: analysis by Gartner recently found that employee turnover due poor internal mobility and future career opportunities costs an average-sized organisation a whopping $49 million per year.

Internal mobility is an excellent tool to recognise and reward high-performing employees, or shift employees into roles that better suit their skill-sets. However, from a purely business-focussed perspective, it can also be a huge cost-cutter. Win-win! 

What teams are getting wrong about internal mobility

Given the far-ranging benefits of a robust internal mobility program, the question becomes, why aren’t more teams focussing on internal mobility? Currently, only 13% of L&D professionals say their internal mobility programs are centralised to one team or individual. Additionally, Deloitte finds that only 6% of businesses think they are doing an ‘excellent’ job at internal mobility, with a further 36% saying they are doing a ‘good’ job. Shockingly, only 65% of teams say they even advertise open positions internally. 

Given this, it’s no surprise that most employees are willing to turn their backs and look elsewhere for a new job. According to a survey by Deloitte, 57% of employees believe it would be easier to find a new job in a different organisation, compared to just 43% who said it would be easier to find a new job in their current organisation. 

Many common roadblocks stand in the way of internal mobility. For example, 49% of businesses say they lack the processes to identify and move employees into new roles, while 45% of employees say they lack information on available roles. In fact, according to Deloitte, “many HR leaders tell us that employees find it easier to quit and be rehired than to change positions within the organisation, because of the lack of systems to enable and promote internal moves.” 

In addition, 46% of managers were resistant to internal moves. This resistance can have a massive impact on retention, as companies that rate highly for "open and effective management," have a 48% chance of retaining an employee after three years. For teams with low management scores, this drops to just 32%. 

As usual, L&D teams will play a key role in overcoming these roadblocks. Already, LinkedIn finds that L&D plays a central role in internal mobility programs. 39% of L&D teams help identify skill gaps, 31% help identify skill adjacencies, and, most importantly, 33% of L&D teams are actively involved in building internal mobility tools. As more organisations recognise the vast potential of internal mobility, expect these numbers to continue to climb. 

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

We’ll look at why internal mobility is a must-have in the modern workforce — particularly with the threat of The Great Resignation looming.

Why internal mobility is vital in today’s workforce

No longer limited to dev ops and project management teams, agile ways of working have now proven their worth across multiple industries. The past two years have shown the scale of benefits that agility and adaptability can bring to the workplace. However, the destabilizing nature of agile work environments can sometimes negatively affect employees’ mental health and wellbeing.

So, how can we maintain the positive aspects of agile environments into the future of work while minimizing the impact on employee stability and workplace mental health? 

Smarter work design is essential to make a potentially disruptive work culture psychologically safer for staff.

Essentially, this includes planning to be able to throw your plan out the window.

The modern working world, particularly in the technology and digital service industries, involves a relentless rate of change. While start-ups continue to prove their capacity to disrupt industries and norms with lightning speed and confidence, traditional organizations are often left slowly playing catch-up. 

Maintaining a seat at the table requires a focus on fostering disruptive abilities and authentic connections with your customers and employees. 

Disruptive ability is the capacity of a team or workplace to rapidly prioritize new focuses, shift activities, and turnaround solutions. This capacity is strengthened by a clear purpose, autonomy, and a culture of continuous learning.

Henna Inam, Forbes contributor and author of Wired for Disruption, notes that ‘as the future is unpredictable, we create the future by learning in the present moment.’  

Research from a BetterUp leadership coaching program recently revealed a strong correlation between mental fitness improvements within management (lower stress, higher purpose, and higher resilience – each up by 25-30% on average) and attaining organizational growth goals. 

Contrary to outdated notions, putting money towards improving the mental fitness of your employees will strengthen, not detract, from organizational growth. 

As mentioned before, a culture of ‘continuous learning’ is crucial for agile teams in the future world of work. This involves providing sufficient and ongoing mental health and wellbeing education. The latest McKinsey Global Survey on reskilling found the proportion of companies addressing empathy and interpersonal skills doubled in 2020. 

Between 71 and 90% of companies who have undertaken skill transformations say it had a positive impact on four company outcomes; 

The ability to realize company strategy 

Skill transformation strategies, particularly those addressing the wellbeing of employees, will not only impact growth but also positive employee engagement.

As highlighted in The Agile Leader (available through Blinkist on the Go1 Smarter Work Design learning playlist), the success of a team relies more on how they behave towards each other than the collective level of talent.

A team with high levels of trust is 9 times more agile than one without. This is understandable when you realise the high-trust environment that agility, and autonomous working, requires. 

For a team to adapt or create rapidly, they need to lean heavily into autonomous decision making and trust in each other's capabilities. 

Leading and supporting teams in the future of work can feel overwhelming, particularly if you're unsure where to begin. To help navigate these waters, we have developed the Humans at Work guide in partnership with AP Psychology.  

This auditing and planning tool will guide you in finding the right learning for your team, so they can turn up to work authentically themselves and thrive. 

If you are a current Go1 customer, you can complete the guide in partnership with your CSM, and they will add a Humans at Work learning plan into your current learning structure. 

If you are not currently a customer and are interested in elevating your workplace's mental health and wellbeing learning, we would love to help. 

Download the Humans at Work guide now to start moving towards psychologically safer workplaces. 

Agility has been crucial over the past few years. But how can we make agile ways of working sustainable for the future of work?

How agile and adaptable are your team?

Agility has been crucial over the past few years. But how can we make agile ways of working sustainable for the future of work? 

What does it mean to be an emotional human being? And, how do our systems interact and work with one another so that we can show up and not only be better learners and leaders, but also better humans as a whole? 

All is revealed in episode 24 of the Learning with Go1 podcast, where our host David William Hastings is joined by Learning Scientist Lauren Waldman and host of The Healthy Mind F*** podcast Dr Chris Lee to continue the education around all things neuroscience, cognitive load and learning in the workplace.  

Check out some of our favourite highlights below. 

For many people over the past 18 months, it has been quite difficult to have a sense of consistency and certainty in their worlds, let alone setting aside some hours to learn.  

To kickstart the podcast, Lauren and Dr Lee explore the critical things that can help organisations better support employees, firstly through establishing trust and consistency.  

Dr Chris Lee on learning and the nervous system

In this highlight, Lauren begins to uncover the role social learning plays in the workplace today. Touching on the importance of giving employees the opportunity to explore, challenge, measure, and receive feedback, Lauren explains how the social factor of learning can benefit our mental health and put us in a more favourable position to learn.  

Social learning in the workplace

To add to Lauren’s point, Dr Lee describes how our brains can change in response to a number of external inputs, ultimately shaping the way we perceive ourselves and others. This is especially important when it comes to co-regulation and social learning. 

The influence of our external environments

According to Dr Lee, one of the most powerful things for leaders to learn is the ability to create a safe space for people to express themselves. He explains: 

“The capacity for your team to express creative potential is their capacity to express, period. If they have a container to feel, to express all these different emotions, to have a non-judgmental circle, creativity will be a by-product of that.” 

To do so requires a high level of self-regulation and self-awareness - two traits Dr Chris has observed in some of today's most powerful emerging leaders. 

Fostering creativity in the workplace

To wrap up the podcast, David highlights that in order to make any change, it must first come from within. To be able to help others, we need to understand how to regulate ourselves and co-regulate with others. 

It all starts with the self

“All you owe yourself every single day is 1% change. What's that 1% thing that you can do today? Is it writing this on a sticky note, or putting a reminder to come back and be present, or learning something that you had today? What's that one small thing that you can do? That's what you owe yourself. And this is again, a leadership tactic that we see. It's not that they have these like, sprint rest, sprint rest. It's consistency, right? Just 1% every single day.” 

“I'll keep it short and sweet and end with YARR. In my world, as some know, that stands for ‘You Are Really Ready’. And whether you are really ready to just drop to the floor and cry right now, or have a good laugh, or go order a pizza, or start a new learning journey - whatever it is, you've got this.” 

This stimulating conversation not only touched on humanising the workplace, but also on mental health and physical wellbeing, learning, and all the science that supports it. If you haven’t already, listen to the full podcast here to learn more.   

We look forward to continuing the rest of the series with L&D professionals already scheduled to join us from Italy, Cyprus, Eqypt, Oman, Finland, The Netherlands, Australia, USA and many more. Stay tuned!    

Want to hear more? Browse the full Learning with Go1 podcast library on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify to help expand your knowledge of all things L&D. And hear how other organisations are navigating through this ever-evolving landscape.  

All is revealed in episode 24 of the Learning with Go1 podcast, where our host David William Hastings is joined by Learning Scientist Lauren Waldman and Dr Chris Lee to continue the education around all things neuroscience, cognitive load and learning in the workplace.  

Preparing your brain for learning and new habit-forming 

All is revealed in episode 24 of the Learning with Go1 podcast, where our host David William Hastings is joined by Lauren Waldman and Dr Chris Lee to continue the education around all things neuroscience, cognitive load and learning in the workplace.  

Now that 2022 has well and truly begun, it is the perfect time to reflect on some of the biggest L&D trends of the year so far, and look ahead to what the rest of the year may have in store. 

While the year races by and clashing priorities pull you in different directions, it’s easy to lose track of the latest industry developments. What has been trending? How has it affected the L&D industry? What exciting developments can we have to look forward to for the rest of 2022? And, most importantly, how can your L&D team capitalise on these ongoing trends? 

At Go1, we like to think we’re on top of the latest and greatest L&D trends, so, with all these questions swirling around, we decided to look at a few of the top L&D trends for 2022. We’ll examine the trends of empowering learners, soft skills, content aggregation, and improving D&I, analysing everything you need to know to stay up to date and informed on L&D trends. 

Content aggregation has emerged as one of the biggest L&D trends of 2022. As we touched on in our article on how learning content aggregation can benefit your L&D team, aggregators have become popular in many facets of everyday life, and L&D has not been exempt. 

Content aggregation refers to the process of collecting a variety of different digital learning providers and making them available in one convenient, centralised location. For many L&D teams, this model can save the common pain point of trying to deliver suitable content to different teams and learning styles, all on tight time constraints and an even tighter budget. Usually, something has to give. 

However, a content aggregator addresses these issues by providing the breadth, diversity, and quality of content to suit diverse learning priorities, preferences, and styles. By accessing your digital learning content from a single central source, you don’t need to compromise on what to deliver again to your learners - which is why content aggregation has emerged as a top L&D trend this year. 

Empowering learners via self-directed learning 

There’s never a bad time to empower your learners. However, in 2021, we saw the trend of empowered learners go to the next level, with self-directed learning being a key factor. According to LinkedIn, 43% of Gen Z and Millennials, and 33% of Gen X and Baby Boomers, want to be empowered with fully self-directed and independent learning.

Emerald Works’ 2020 Back to the Future Report reinforces these findings, explaining that “when we empower people to ‘own’ their learning journey and see how it adds value to them and their organisation, we see increased levels of motivation, resilience, and performance.”

As Emerald Works’ research finds, the benefits of empowering your learners are almost endless. They find that agile learning organisations where “people engage with self-determined learning without prompting” are 11% more likely to enhance individual wellbeing, 24% more likely to produce a better-qualified workforce, 18% more likely to understand the principles of diversity and inclusion, and  12% more likely to increase on-the-job productivity. 

Accordingly, empowering learners via self-directed learning can have far-reaching impacts on both an organisational and individual level. 

In 2021 and continuing into 2022, many L&D teams have increased their focus on diversity and inclusion, which has emerged as one of the most positive trends of the last couple of years. According to LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report, 64% of L&D pros globally say their executive team made D&I a top priority in 2021, while 71% of L&D teams either currently have a D&I program or are planning to implement one. Additionally, diversity and inclusion ranked second among programs that L&D teams plan to deploy, just behind ‘leading through change’. 

As a result, companies with robust D&I programs are now 22% more likely to be seen as industry leaders with high-calibre talent. 

What’s more, Emerald Works’ 2020 Back to the Future Report finds that 58% of high-impact learning cultures, which are defined as the top 10% of surveyed organisations, embed the principles of diversity and inclusion, compared to just 34% of other L&D teams. These figures show that a well-developed D&I program can take your L&D team to the next level. 

For further insights into the importance of diversity and inclusion in L&D, be sure to check out our blog series from D&I thought leader Maureen Frank. 

Finally, soft skills have been taking L&D by storm. We’ve discussed the need for employees to develop soft skills previously in our blog on closing the L&D skills gap. Developing soft skills has only become more relevant since then. 

According to a recent study of Fortune 500 CEOs, 75% of long term job success depends on people skills (soft skills), compared to just 25% which depends on technical skills (hard skills). Further, a report from IBM finds that “a shift is occurring; executives’ views regarding the priority of critical skills have taken a turn from digital and technical to behavioural.” As such, many executives now prioritise soft, behavioural skills over hard technical skills. 

On top of this, 89% of recruiters say when a hire doesn’t work out, it usually comes down to a lack of soft skills, according to SHRM. 

Perhaps most significantly, new research by HR Drive, which analysed more than 82 million job ads, found that the top five soft skills are requested 3.8 times more frequently than the top five hard skills. They also found that seven of the ten most requested skills were soft skills. Soft skills were requested in 64% of the ads analysed, while 36% of the job postings requested three or more soft skills. 

While these statistics do not mean that hard skills are dead — far from it — the demand for soft skills is certainly trending upwards, meaning they may be your key to L&D success in the future. 

Top L&D trends for 2022 

There is no denying the dramatic shifts that have occurred to how we work. Changes around flexibility and employee wellbeing have been compounded through pandemic impacts and social justice movements. 

Organizations and employees are beginning to plan beyond the uncertainty of the past few years, and the importance of capable leadership in steering towards the future of work is becoming evident. 

Joe Whittinghill, VP of Talent, Learning and Insights at Microsoft, recently highlighted that, “as we face the biggest shift to how we work in our generation, it’s our managers who create the conditions and experiences that define what flexible work truly means.”

We are starting to see a working world where employees wield more negotiable and cultural power. From demanding flexible working arrangements, to mental health support and proof of organizational positive social impact; the new benchmarks have been set. 

Within this new working world, bad leadership just won’t last (at least not as easily). Today’s workforce are very adept at seeing through leaders who only talk the talk. 

The reality of the future of work for leaders

A lack of leadership capability is a serious barrier to organizational progress into the future of work. A recent survey from PWC name it as one of three identified significant inhibitors to progress (along with cost pressures, and organizational culture). 

For varying reasons, many leaders of today are not yet equipped to support the workforce of tomorrow. More than 50% of managers find it hard to identify when their team members are struggling with their mental wellbeing, overwork or burnout. 

With reports showing vividly how much of the workforce has struggled or still is struggling, it's critical that leaders are sufficiently trained and able to support their teams. Working hours (overtime) have increased by 14% since 2020, 49% of Americans said that planning for their future felt impossible in 2021, and 3 in 10 global workers say their physical and mental health has declined in the last 12 months. 

Employees are demanding more flexible, empathetic and agile leaders. But are leaders ready to step up?