LEO Learning, a market leader in global learning strategy, content, and technology, alongside Watershed, an industry leader in learning measurement and data analysis, have come together for their fifth annual joint-effort survey.

In a year that has seen global transformation of learning and development, this survey aims to gain insight into the changing priorities, technologies, and strategy focuses within the L&D community.

With results from the last four years showing ever-changing priorities and an increasing focus on the impact of data on learning strategy, this year's survey aims to uncover a range of insights from learning professionals, including

• the importance of big data in learning
• strategies and plans for measuring the business impact of learning
• executive pressure and organizational priorities
• roadblocks, technologies, and budgets
• vendor relationship management

With 2020 being such a key and challenging year for learning and development, organizations that take part in the short survey can expect the following:

• the ability to see live results as soon as the response is submitted
• immediate access to a LEO and Watershed measurement toolkit, including how-to guides on measurement strategy and implementing learning analytics, last year's report, and a free Learning Record Store (LRS) to start gathering data
• first access to the resulting research report when it launches early next year

Piers Lea, Chief Strategy Officer at LEO's parent company, LTG, said, "It's said that L&D is one of the last great unmeasured spends in business. It seems extraordinary that leadership is not more concerned with understanding the impact their investment in learning is having. Our data shows that this is changing. We expect that to continue in light of the importance of developing talent within organizations moving forward.

"This survey, now in its fifth year, gives all of us the opportunity to understand how recent events have impacted learning and development, and the direction in which we are moving as an industry."

David Ells, Managing Director of Watershed, said, "During the last four years, we've noticed a growing shift in the way both L&D professionals and the organization as a whole view learning analytics. That is, L&D doesn't just want to measure learning's impact, the broader organization is actually prioritizing it.

Aside from how COVID-19 is impacting measurement strategy, one aspect we will be looking closely at is how executive pressure for measuring learning's impact has changed as responses have fluctuated during the last few years. The expectation that pressure would continue to increase hasn't been met, and we're keen to explore the reasons surrounding this."

The survey will be open for around one month, with the results report being published in early 2021.