Learning & Development Trends 2022 

What are the key learning and development trends for 2022? Which challenges will companies face in L&D moving forward? Find the latest analysis from the annual L&D Global Sentiment Survey. 

Over the past five years, the survey was able to compile close to 12,000 entries from more than 100 countries and leveraged results into numbers, statistics, and forecasts. For decades, the learning and development segment has claimed a key role in corporate environments. The companies that are supporting their employees with reskilling and upskilling opportunities are bound to reap rewards on multiple levels. That’s because learning and development strategy is now a core component of modern-day corporate structure. 

In our Masterclass Webinar with L&D Expert Donald H Taylor, we outlined the main takeaways from the current survey on workplace learning in 2022. Over 180 participants from across the globe used the opportunity to obtain these valuable insights for discussion in a professional environment. The main overarching trend for 2022: Placing individuals at the center. 

This means considering individuals with all their unique needs, various skill sets and character traits. Supplemented by technological ramifications, the growing demand for digital learning and the fundamental questions of “how” and “why” to implement L&D in a corporate context. 

Companies and executives from across the world are considering their approaches for providing workplace learning to their skilled personnel. They are highly aware of the importance of a continuous learning strategy in today’s work environment as a driver behind successful businesses and the power to innovate. The L&D Global Sentiment Survey sets out to capture the impressions and opinions of experts from across the globe to help analyze relevant core areas and identify future trends. 

Every year, the one-minute survey addresses professionals in the L&D segment. The dominant question remains: “What will be the key tendencies for L&D in the workplace this year?” Now in its ninth year, the survey elicited a massive responses with 3,500 entries from more than 100 countries. 

For the first time in survey history, submissions included 400 entries from Africa as an emerging and important market. Every year, survey results are presented in front of a broad international audience and outcomes, takeaways, and statistics provided in download format. 

The individual responses provide fascinating insights into people’s way of thinking while providing ample grounds for identifying emerging trends for the new year. What’s more, even extrapolate one or the other forecast for the future. Overall, the survey should provide companies and L&D experts with a sound foundation for their strategic decision making. 

Over the past few years, the survey powerfully demonstrated key international trends as well as regionally specific differences. While the survey suggests a clear tendency towards an adaptive, personalized and sustainable learning structure, the results also indicate differences in approaches that can be attributed to regional peculiarities.  

While the key segment across most countries for 2022 remains reskilling and upskilling, South American nations place the most emphasis on collaborative and social learning. In Europe, the most relevant factors are competence-based talent management, learning analyses and in-depth counseling. In Africa, areas such as virtual reality and digital accessibility proved the key areas.  

Despite these differences, the survey on learning and development trends 2022 shows a clear tendency towards individualized L&D strategies. Close to 30 percent of entries clearly place the human individual at the center of L&D initiatives. The field of reskilling and upskilling has by a far margin emerged at the top of the most important L&D aspects, followed by factors such as collaborative learning, coaching, and counseling.    

As a new but increasingly strong influence, competence-based talent management is gaining ground. With over 7 percent, this component has overtaken strong areas such as micro learning, implementation of interactive learning platforms and goal-oriented performance development. 

Previous years marked the emergence of technology-based segments as the hottest L&D trends. But results from the 2022 survey suggests a new trending area: Technology-oriented approaches are trending down, human-centered leadership is on the rise.

According to L&D expert Donald H Taylor, this sea change is happening for various reasons. In an increasingly digital world, a great number of technologies have already become seamlessly integrated in our lives and environment on a fundamental level. In the process, these L&D initiatives have become self-evident and no longer garner much attention. Along those lines, mobile-optimized learning content is of course still highly relevant for workplace learning efforts. But survey respondents no longer consider this as a major future trend, since the reality has already fully arrived.  

The latest survey marks a string increase in human-centered aspects in learning and development. Further reasons behind this shift include changing ramifications in social surroundings and the environment. This significant shift will pose new challenges from a professional and economic perspective. Over the long run, these challenges are bound to encourage the symbiosis between humans and technology. It’s a holistic approach to workplace learning, training, and technological progress – with humans and their unique needs and talents as the main focus.

Constant shifts in living and working conditions pose new challenges to companies. As a result, many organizations are struggling with setting the right priorities. Asked about their major pain points, L&D experts pointed out the allocation of budgets and resources, strategic implementation, and definition of hybrid work models. Plus, incentivizing employee engagement is perceived as a key area. Meaning: How can companies best motivate and support their employees? What is the best approach to utilizing resources most effectively? And how can hybrid working models be established and nurtured?

Among the major takeaways of the survey, questions of ‘how’ tend to dominate, as was to be expected. But additionally, considerations of the ‘why’ behind workplace learning are gaining importance. In search of answers, the analysis and evaluation of data could provide valuable insights. For a sound foundation, we need to ensure proper and effective collection, processing, and utilization of these data points. Although technology-driven aspects such as learning analysis, adaptive learning and artificial intelligence are losing ground as the massive trends in L&D for 2022, their relevance in the L&D toolset is not to be underestimated. After all, those companies who can create a holistic approach towards humans, technology, and digital learning are poised to successfully meet the challenges arising in 2022 and beyond.   

Successfully integrating concepts for reskilling and upskilling on a corporate level, decision makers need to fully consider and understand their own industry as well as their competitors, but also the larger societal shifts at work right now. Expert Donald H Taylor likes to visualize the journey towards success in the form of a glacier: The climb to the top is steep and demanding, while conditions along the way remain in constant flux. So while initial considerations should revolve around training and skill building on a fundamental level as well as the nurturing of specializes skillsets, additional measures should include tactical shifts in behavior as well as unlocking additional competencies.  

After all, at the peak of success, companies and their workforce are poised to meet many changes and challenges. So it’s key to be prepared for new shifts in thinking, new expectations and conditions as well as novel trends. It will require communication and coordinated efforts to develop innovative strategies while translating arising internal and external influences into workplace learning schemes. As the very term ‘learning and development’ suggests, the way to the top is paved by the desire to constantly develop, together with a constant curiosity to keep learning new skills.