London (UK), September 2008 - LINE Communications, a provider of learning and communications solutions, has conducted a survey of HR professionals working within large European organisations with a minimum of 3,000 employees. The majority of respondents sited 'unstructured' learning interventions as a crucial element for inspiring the curiosity to learn in their work force.
The survey was conducted at ETD.08, European Training & Development Summit in Prague, where LINE surveyed approximately fifty HR professionals from large organisations headquartered throughout Europe. The survey focused on the notion of inspiring the curiosity to learn in the work force.
Most of the responses centred on a need for HR to create or allow networks of learning to form within their organisations in order to distribute individual employee expertise more effectively. These networks could take the form of social networks or more formalised mentoring programmes.
Respondents also noted the importance of ambiguity in learning interventions. This ambiguity suggested a tolerance by HR professionals for training interventions that allow for learner error, or even failure, as an effective means toward learning new skills. Most respondents stated that training and learning needed to push employees outside of their comfort zone.
Finally, most of the HR professionals in attendance saw the need for learning to be self-guided but tied to rewards or succession.
Piers Lea, CEO at LINE, said "Informal learning has always been a powerful component of organisational learning. Web 2.0 and other technologies can help support this approach but it's often quite difficult to introduce these tools into organisations as part of a learning strategy. The European HR professionals surveyed provided some interesting evidence of their successes in this field as well as the challenges that they have overcome."
