TOP corporate training: focus on engagement, leadership development and mental health

Develor's research, which gathered the insights of 1,773 respondents, highlighted a critical issue in HR: retaining and engaging employees remains a huge challenge. 36% of respondents identified this area as an HR priority in 2024. Developing leadership skills remains a key focus for companies. The research found that 34% of HR and training development managers consider continuous improvement of leadership skills to be key, particularly in the areas of managing change and motivating teams. Managers are increasingly looking for training programmes that provide them with practical, immediately applicable knowledge in a short timeframe. Mental health is a growing concern. 27% of companies consider it such an important issue that they are planning or have already implemented programmes to support employees' mental well-being. These programmes focus not only on stress management and burnout prevention, but also on work-life balance

Training priorities 2024

Evolving forms of training, AI a hot topic

The demand for technology training has increased. 20% of respondents say developing digital skills is essential to remain competitive. In EU countries, this topic is even more prominent in this year's training plans. Training that focuses on developing a positive attitude towards artificial intelligence (AI) and providing basic user skills is particularly important at the moment. One of the most interesting findings of the research is that the training preferences of workers and training professionals have changed significantly in recent years. Prior to the Covid period, the industry typically thought in terms of 2-day, classroom-based training, now 77% of survey respondents plan to implement half-day or 1-day training. While traditional classroom training used to dominate, now online and blended training formats have come to the fore. 43% of respondents said they plan to deliver online training in 2024.

Distribution of training channels 2024

More money for training

The research shows that training budgets are fairly stable, with the largest group of organisations (39%) not changing their budgets at all. It seems to be a conscious decision to continue investing in training their staff at unchanged levels. At the same time, there is a noticeable tendency to increase rather than reduce budgets. One in four organisations have seen a significant increase in their budget of 10% or more, while less than 10% of organisations are working with a smaller budget this year. This suggests that despite challenging times in many markets and sectors, companies are moving towards greater investment in training

What are HR and training professionals saying?

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