Professional
Development:
What Employees
Want
Professional
Development:
What Employees
Want
Professional
Development:
What
Employees
Want
In PayScale’s 2019 Compensation Best Practices Report we found that the biggest area HR professionals plan to invest in this year is professional development for employees (23 percent).
Additionally, the number two tactic that employers planned to use to retain their best employees (after merit-based pay at 61 percent) was also professional development (59 percent).
Since this is such a hot topic we wanted to dig in and find out more.
We heard from close to 38,000 people between December 2018 and August 2019 about what kind of training and development opportunities were most popular with different types of employees and why.
What kind of professional development would you be most interested in?
The top three most popular employee professional development plan options were; Management/Leadership training (32 percent); Professional certifications (30 percent) and Technical skills training (dropping down to 17 percent).
Management/Leadership Training:
Respondents to PayScale’s Salary Survey most frequently reported that they would be most interested in management/leadership training. Nearly a third of all respondents selected this option.
For the most part, management/leadership training was the most commonly selected option across the generations. A notable exception, however, are Baby Boomers. While Gen Xers and millennials both most frequently selected management/leadership training, Baby Boomers do not. Baby Boomers had slightly higher rates of selecting professional certification (just over 30 percent) than management/leadership training (slightly under 29 percent.)
Professional Certifications:
There are several industries and occupations where professional certifications were prized. These include:
Technical Skills:
Fewer than 17 percent chose the next most popular option, technical skills training.
There are certain industries and occupations where this option is more popular. These tend to be industries and occupations that are technical in nature or becoming more technical and include:
industry
19%
Energy & utilities
industry
23%
Engineering & science
industry
20%
Manufacturing
industry
28%
Technology
industry
occupations
26%
Architecture & engineering
occupations
32%
Art & design
occupations
37%
Information technology
occupations
30%
Installation, Maintenance
& Repair occupations
22%
Media & Publishing
Occupations
23%
Science & Biotech
Occupations
In The Middle
In The Middle
Teamwork/Interpersonal Skills Training:
In the middle of the pack is Teamwork/Interpersonal Skills training. Just eight percent of respondents chose Teamwork/Interpersonal Skills Training.
Women chose this option 4 percent more than men. Baby Boomers also chose this 4 percent more than Gen X or Millennials.
Industries and Occupations that typically require frequent customer interactions also chose this option at a higher rate. These include:
The least popular employee professional development options were:
7%
Employer-subsidized degrees
4%
Communications/public speaking training
2%
Diversity and Inclusion training
Employer-Subsidized Degrees
Only 7 percent of respondents chose employer-subsidized degree.
Those in low-pay, but high-meaning industries report relatively high rates of saying they would want employer-subsidized degrees. Over 10 percent of respondents in both the education and nonprofit industries reported that they would be most interested in an employer-subsidized degree.
Occupations where expensive advanced degrees are needed have relatively high rates of respondents saying they would be most interested in an employer-sponsored degree.
These include:
Marketing & advertising (10 percent) and media & publishing (9 percent) occupations also have relatively high rates of people saying they would most prefer employer-sponsored degrees. This could be due to these occupations skewing younger and changing to require more technical skills.
Communications/Public Speaking Training
Four percent of respondents chose communications/public speaking for professional development. Response rates for this answer indicate differences by occupation. Occupations with the highest response rate for public speaking included:
Diversity and Inclusion Training
The least popular professional development option was diversity and inclusion training. Only slightly more than 2 percent of all respondents chose this option. However, there are some groups who showed a bit more interest in diversity and inclusion training.
Industries and occupations that require close interaction with people have higher rates of interest in diversity and inclusion training.
These industries and occupations include:
Women (3 percent) had higher rates than men (1 percent) of saying they would be most interested in diversity and inclusion training. And close to 5 percent of Black or African American respondents said that they would be most interested in this option.
HELP EMPLOYEES GET THE MOST OUT OF EVERY TRAINING OPPORTUNITY.
What Is Motivating Employees to Pursue Professional Development?
What Is Motivating Employees to Pursue Professional Development?
The highest percentage of respondents wanted professional development so they could get a promotion in their current role (35 percent) or to get a raise (33 percent). The next most popular reasons were to get a job somewhere else (19 percent) or to get a different role in their current organization (14 percent).
At 42 percent, Asian workers had the highest rate of saying that they want professional development opportunities in order to get a promotion. In previous PayScale research, we have shown that Asian men and women have the highest rates of being individual contributors. The comparatively high percentage of Asian workers who want professional development opportunities to get a promotion may reflect that they feel constricted in their ability to move up the organizational ladder.
The second most common reason why people said they wanted professional development opportunities was to get a raise. Nearly a third of respondents selected this option.
There is a difference in the rates at which men and women selected this option. Thirty-five percent of women said they want professional development to get a raise, while 30 percent of men report the same.
Baby boomers had higher rates than Gen Xers and millennials in saying they want professional development to get a raise. Just over 40 percent of boomers said they wanted a raise, compared with 32 percent of Gen Xers and 31 percent of millennials.
Some industries and occupations also have relatively high rates of saying they want professional development in order to get a raise. These include:
40%
Healthcare industry
37%
Construction industry
35%
Arts, entertainment & recreation industry
35%
Nonprofits industry
41%
Installation, maintenance & repair occupations
40%
Healthcare practitioners & technical occupations
40%
Legal occupations
38%
Construction occupations
36%
Art & design occupations
35%
Administrative & finance occupations
Only 19 percent of respondents reported wanting professional development in order to get a job elsewhere. However, those who don’t feel good about their current job have much higher rates of reporting they want professional development in order to get a job elsewhere.
69%
of those who reported they hate their job want professional development in order to get a job elsewhere.
52%
of those who reported that their job may make the world a worse place said they want professional development so they can find a job somewhere else.
The least common selection from respondents was to get a different role within their current organization. Less than 14 percent of respondents chose this option.
By Gender
By Gender
When we look at it from a gender perspective we found that men were motivated by getting a promotion in their current role and women by getting a raise in their current role. However, both men and women were equally motivated by getting a job somewhere else (both at 19 percent) and to get a different role within my current organization (both at 14 percent).
Why do you want professional development?
By Generation
By Generation
Management/leadership training was the most commonly selected option across the groups of survey respondents. A notable exception, however, is Baby Boomers. While Gen Xers and millennials both most frequently selected management/leadership training, Baby Boomers do not. Baby Boomers had slightly higher rates of selecting professional certification (just over 30 percent) than management/leadership training (slightly under 29 percent.)
What kind of professional development would you be most interested in?
Basic Employee Needs Must Be Met Before Learning Can Happen
No matter what kind of professional development program you decide to build, it’s imperative to first make sure that your compensation plan is set up in a way that supports your employees basic needs first.
First, check to see that your base comp plan is equitable and competitive. The perception of fairness is critical to employee engagement. If your employees think that they aren’t paid adequately or fairly they won’t be eager to learn or improve their performance. Before you implement additional professional development programs, determine if it’s your compensation plan that needs immediate attention.
Next, think through how your comp plan could incentivize development. Are you making pay increase decisions for employees based on their acquisition of new skills? Or do your job descriptions and comp plans emphasize years of experience and seniority only? If that is the case, you may need to consider how you should consider paying for skills and competencies instead of tenure.
Once you get compensation right, you can add on the most impactful professional development plans. Ultimately, professional development programs should ladder up to your organizational goals and individual needs. Present well defined goals and benefits when you are pitching your professional development program to senior leadership. Ensuring this alignment will ease leadership buy in and allow you to prove ROI.
