To understand how businesses are looking to empower employees through an ingrained culture of learning—and how important this is for talent retention—HRD Connect partnered with Coursera to undertake research involving over 140 human resources (HR) leaders worldwide. The data gathered provides a snapshot into how evolving learning and development frameworks are integrating into business strategies and broader talent acquisition plans.

Key findings:

• The biggest enabler or barrier to overall business success is talent, but over 40% of senior executives globally struggle to attract the right talent.
• More than 60% of leaders believe their talent attraction challenges have worsened since the pandemic, and 82% believe it’s due to competition for talent.
• Up to 47% of executives value professional development either “a lot more” or “somewhat more” compared to pre-pandemic times.
• Embedding training opportunities into company culture and providing easy access to training courses are key to enabling employees to flourish.