It’s now our third year publishing our yearly trends report, and this year might be our favorite. When we started sending out our trends in training survey a few years ago, we had the intention of using the results to help inform prescriptive program development with our clients.
By the time the next year rolled around we realized that we wanted to use the results from our clients and other L&D experts to inform our stance on what we think the L&D world will look like in the coming year. Now with a few years of research and data we are more equipped than ever to deliver a report that is packed with valuable L&D golden nuggets.
Below is a high-level recap of our biggest findings (spoiler alert!), but we invite you to dive deeper by downloading our 2025 Trends in Training Report.
CEO Challenges continue to be at the forefront of strategic planning for every department going into the next year. This year we see a renewed focus on keeping talent in-house, with the three main challenges being Leadership Development (49.5%), Upskilling and Reskilling (42.1%), and Employee Retention (41.1%). Compared to the years before, leadership has always been in the mix signaling that companies have still not cracked the case on ensuring leaders receive the training they need to excel in their roles.
Based on these challenges affecting most organizations, we’d expect to see to see consideration given to programs that would directly address these when asking about programs that L&D professionals have support to run. Conversely, though, the most supported programs were Compliance (75.7%), Safety (69.2%), and Onboarding (65.5%). Notice that programs, like Leadership (43.9%), New Manager (34.6), and Soft Skills (24.3%), that are directly tied to CEO’s main challenges did not make the top three list.
This could mean that organizations still care about prioritizing foundational programs that keep their employees safe, respectful, and knowledgeable on what is legally required of them in their industry, state, and workplace. If that’s the case, then we are left with a larger question, how do we ensure alignment from the top down that allows foundational programs to still be executed, but also programs that develop employees at any level?
We reminded ourselves of this question as we dove into L&D challenges, because it’s often not lack of desire to trial something new, but rather other factors at play. When looking at the data, we noticed L&D challenges really are a two-fold issue. With having CEO challenges demanding attention to the growth of employees but only supporting only the basics, we run into an interesting dichotomy.
Furthermore, while L&D professionals wrestle with competing priorities they also are dealing with other challenges related to their programs’ execution. Topping the list this year, just like in years past, is not enough time to devote to building a training program (46.7% – the highest it’s ever been we might add), measuring the impact (41.1%), and not enough learner participation (39.3%).
It’s no secret that training professionals wear dozens of hats and feel overworked, which makes a lot of sense when the data shows us that they just can’t seem to find time to work on anything new since their plate is overflowing. This can directly impact finding the bandwidth to drill into the metrics that show the impact of L&D on an organization (p.s. not being able to provide these could have future budget or leadership buy-in implications) –which we saw an increase of 6% of respondents expressing extreme difficulty in understanding what should be measured this year compared to last year. Or designing promotional emails around certain programs to drum up learner engagement.
Now, your head may be spinning trying to understand what all this could mean headed into 2025 since there is A LOT going on (and to think this is just the meat and potatoes!!). At the core, L&D and HR professionals need to feel aligned and supported and have a way to balance foundation and building blocks.
At BizLibrary, we are coining 2025 as ‘The Year of Hitting Refresh.’
Merriam-Webster defines refresh as “restoring strength and animation to: revive” and we think this encompasses the exact sentiment we want to have when looking at HR and L&D.
Breathing new life into core programs that make workplaces safer, more secure, and more respectful is at the top of our list as we know the impact it brings to fellow employees and outside the walls of the workplace.
Additionally, professionals are tired and overwhelmed and playing a part in helping them feel supported is why we emphasize strategic support. Being our clients’ partner from program conception to execution will continue to be a focus for us at BizLibrary to allow L&D professionals to channel their passion for employee development and start programs that to just that.
And lastly, providing guidance and recommendations to C-Suite, executive sponsors, and decision-makers on how to ensure their training professionals’ wellbeing can be improved. This could be done through clearly defined job roles and responsibilities as well as alignment between business goals and training programs to ensure outcomes that benefit employees and an organization’s growth.
If you’re left wanting more details around buy-in, budget, delivery methods, and so, so much more, those are secrets we only tell in our full 2025 Trends in Training Report, which you can download (for free!) here.
