1/3 of HR Leaders Feel Current Training Programs Are Meeting Their Development Needs, Says Survey

Attracting top talent and improving employee engagement are the top priorities for 2017, according to a new survey released by Waggl, a technology platform that surfaces and distills real-time insights from groups of people.

In Waggl’s newest “Voice of the Workplace” pulse survey, conducted with hundreds of business and HR leaders from August 2026 through October 2016, only 34% said that their current training programs are meeting development needs.  By way of contrast, 89% of the participants responded that they are taking active steps to improve employee engagement and 86% said that they could be doing more to attract top talent.  Fifty-four percent of the respondents said that they effectively execute on their strategic goals and plans.

Waggl also asked participants, “Where are you going to be focusing your people and talent budget in 2017?” and distilled their crowd-sourced responses into a ranked list. The most common themes from the responses were:

• Adopting new initiatives faster and more effectively.
• Making sure everyone feels informed through better 2-way internal communication.
• Discovering and resolving problem areas quicker.
• Improving execution through better prioritization.
• Increasing transparency.
• Talent development.

“These results clearly illustrate that that hiring, retention, and communication are top of mind for HR and business leaders right now,” said Michael Papay, CEO of Waggl.  “However, there also appears to be a huge need for better training, with 34% of the participants saying that their current programs don’t meet their development needs.  Of course, all of all these areas of focus are interdependent.  Recruiting may be the hot button right now, but once the talent is secured, engagement and training are essential to building the type of team culture that can effectively execute on strategic goals – especially in our current business climate, which is rife with constant change and disruption.”

More key findings from this survey are included in the infographic below. For more information, visit the Waggl website.