The workplace is no longer the hive of activity in terms of physical presence. Increased hybrid working opportunities – one of lockdown’s unintended legacies – and increased globalisation of teams, have allowed businesses to recruit from a wider pool of talent, which offers benefits in terms of diversity, but can be more challenging for managers. The irony of this move to remote working is that it has the potential to disengage. Consequently, there has never been a more important moment to channel learning & development into engaging an increasingly remote and disparate workforce.

The pandemic, as we well know, has changed the weekly working calendar irreversibly for the majority of the working world. From an HR position, it has been increasingly difficult to accurately and regularly gauge employee satisfaction among hybrid teams and there is only so much genuine data that can be gathered from digital surveys. As a result, it’s essential that teams – remote or not – are united in their commitment and engagement with associated L&D. According to recent research from Microsoft, more than half of managers told researchers that productivity of their teams had dropped off since the shift to remote working. Furthermore, the pressure to find and retain key skills and talent are well documented and the current cost-of-living crisis is an added influence on rising attrition, as people look for better paid opportunities. All this leaves under pressure employers with little alternative than to provide appealing benefits, in order to remain competitive and along clear career progression opportunities, L&D must run through the veins of the organisation and pulse through every career at every stage.

Of course, we are talking upskilling, re-skilling, multi-skilling and focus upon skills that are agile, adaptable and transportable. With this in mind, lest we forget, apprenticeships offer an ideal training pathway for individuals, regardless of seniority, as the various courses can often flex around the operational demands of the business and schedule of the individual employee. For example, apprenticeship delivery models can allow employers to front-load training, so that employees can hit the ground running with the latest skills and knowledge when, for example, starting a new role. Recent research* has revealed that currently, only 40 percent of businesses offer this type of training – including apprenticeships – that are geared towards senior management and 46.3 percent offer apprenticeships to individuals at all career levels. Yet in the same survey, 83.3 percent of businesses believe it is important for senior level employees to undertake continued training and development courses, set against a trend which sees 81.9 percent of employees saying that they experience less emphasis on L&D, as they progress through their careers.

The reality is that the values in upskilling, reskilling and multiskilling throughout a career cannot be realised when there is a patent absence of learning opportunities. Furthermore, with only a quarter of employees considering apprenticeships a viable training option for anyone at any stage of their career, this represents a vital missed opportunity for those at a more senior level. Clearly, it’s time to rethink apprenticeships as an excellent framework to integrate learning and development into the bones of an organisation and provide people of all ages and levels of experience, the opportunity to diversify their skills.

It is time that employers across the country abandon these outdated preconceptions of apprenticeships, which are holding their business back from accessing invaluable learning and development opportunities for people within their organisations. Not only do these training pathways improve knowledge on a practical level, but their benefits can be felt through recruitment cost-savings, as employees often feel higher levels of job satisfaction due to such engagement. In fact, 77 percent of people surveyed said that if they were offered a job with the prospect of doing an apprenticeship to develop their skills, they would take it. Though the hot topic of the cost-of-living crisis has already been touched on, it’s worth noting that there’s another added benefit to offering learning and development opportunities to employees via apprenticeships and that’s the socio-economic barriers many people face to learning – even those in executive roles – who may have previously not considered their professional development a luxury to invest in personally. Indeed, research shows that more than a third of employees, 35.1 percent, have always been interested in training, but have not had the money, support or resources available to undertake it outside of work.

What is clear is that the desire for career advancement has always been there, but the resources to execute it have not. By offering training opportunities in leadership skills to employees, companies are sending a clear message that investing in people is still a priority at every level of their careers, despite the economy. Indeed, the gesture of offering apprenticeship courses and providing access to skills will speak volumes to people about business confidence and job security, turning the tables on attrition and building loyalty. By ensuring entire teams can take on their job roles armed with the latest knowledge of leadership methodology. Though this culture requires roots in management, it needs to blossom from the very beginning of an individual journey within a company. The way in which candidates have been shortlisted for potential job prospects has so far mainly been judged on essential and desirable skills and experience. But this approach completely overlooks potential ambition and the ability and willingness to learn, but whom have never before had access to the opportunities. Leadership skills can be acquired and technical capability learnt, but attributes such as empathy and adaptability, which will be essential components of future competitiveness and should be considered as important as any technical capability, particularly in this fast-moving environment.

*Research from EDN

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