5-STAR LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
SPECIAL REPORT
2 www.hrreporter.com
NEARLY
two years of the COVID-19
pandemic have taken a toll on
organizations and individual employees,
but in the HR space, some bright spots
have emerged.
That's according to three winners of
CHRR's 5-Star Learning & Development
awards, who say the tumultuous times
have also led to major improvements in
L&D as employers and providers revamped
their offerings while evolving their focus
and strategy.
and meeting people where they are, in the
flow of their work.'"
Evolving in tough times
Before the pandemic, a lot of training was
conducted traditionally, in person.
However, the sudden shift to online
working brought about other changes,
says John Baker, president and CEO of
education software company D2L in
Kitchener, ON.
"The pandemic has accelerated the
need to put in place better learning infra-
structures, to support future work, to
[improve] onboarding, career develop-
ment, leadership de velopment,
people development across the organiza-
tion, and help support [employees']
learning growth."
Although many employers had an emer-
gency response in the spring of 2020,
using tools such as WebEx, Teams or
Zoom, now they are putting in place more
FUTURE-READY
LEARNING MODELS
"It's one of those silver lining kind of
things, where it accelerated [change],"
says Janet Clarey, director of HR research
and advisory services at McLean &
Company in Clinton, NY.
" The classic example would be
onboarding. As we realized, 'Okay, this is
going to last a little longer than maybe
just a few months or what we thought,'
there was really a step back to say, 'Let's
reevaluate how we do everything and that
whole approach to continuous learning
PERCENTAGE OF VOTERS' ANNUAL COMPANY SPENDING ON TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Over $100,000
$10,000 - $49,999
$50,000 - $99,999
Up to $9,999
17%
22%
26%
35%
"The pandemic has accelerated
the need for better learning
infrastructures to support
future work and employees'
learning growth" John Baker, D2L
