According to a recent study, a third of employees feel the need for continuous development. Hungarian employees have the intention to learn, but only 20% of those surveyed participated in further training in the past year, according to research by Training360, a leader in adult training. However, employee intention is not enough. A change of attitude is also needed on the employer side: only those companies can be competitive in the future that strategically integrate continuous training of employees into their operations.
A good priest learns until he dies, the saying goes. This is especially true in today's accelerating world, as technology, which is developing at an unprecedented pace in most industries, demands continuous renewal from all of us. But to what extent do today's Hungarian employees follow the idea of lifelong learning? This is one of the questions that the research by Training360, which deals with adult education, sought to answer.
The newly published results of a survey conducted among several hundred domestic employees – including those working in intellectual professions and the IT sector – show that there is no shortage of intention. 1/3 of employees of large domestic companies plan to participate in some kind of training in the coming year. However, only 6 percent of them have a concrete idea of in which field and how. However, the situation is less rosy if we look at the real participation rate, as only 20% of employees participated in further training in the past year.
The survey conducted among employees of companies employing at least 100 people also shows that nearly half of those surveyed (48%) do not feel the need to train themselves. If we add to this the additional 28% who cited lack of time or money, we are talking about a total of 76% who, due to lack of intention or hiding behind excuses, do not develop themselves in the end. This has a detrimental effect on the competitiveness of domestic employees, employers, and thus the entire Hungarian economy. The experiences of József Nyisztor, the CEO of Training360 Kft., which commissioned the research and is a leader in domestic adult training and has a total of more than 200,000 hours of training experience over 7 years, are in line with this:
In principle, a significant proportion of people agree with the idea of continuous training. However, if we are curious about their own steps, it quickly becomes clear that in reality only very few people take even the most basic steps for their own development.
Obviously, the employee's intention alone is not enough in most cases to make a given training course happen, as it is usually financed by the employer. Moreover, the employee is not working during the training, which can cause loss to the employer.
At the same time, with conscious training of employees, companies benefit even in the short term, because when the acquired knowledge is coupled with real career opportunities, it results in a motivated and loyal employee base.
Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises can only be successful if they do not think in terms of ad hoc training, but in terms of training programs, because otherwise they will not only be less attractive to members of the younger generation who consciously choose their jobs, but their efficiency gap compared to multi-companies with complex training programs will increase month by month. For the employee, continuous development opens up the opportunity for advancement within the company and also increases their competitiveness in the labor market. – added József Nyisztor.
January 2019