By Josh Bersin
Source: http://www.hrmreport.com/article/Top-trends-in-e-learning-and-corporate-training/ 
 
This is an exciting time of change in enterprise learning and talent  management. The tight labor market, coupled with the increased focus on  integrated performance and learning strategies, will force further  alignment between training and HR. Learning technologies will evolve,  and self-published content and collaboration will become a significant  element in enterprise learning solutions. Organizations will continue to  evolve toward shared services and struggle to build integrated business  plans that incorporate learning across the organization.
1. Increasing training budgets
Bersin &  Associates research is showing dramatically increasing training budgets.  According to recent research, corporate training budgets in the United  States increased on average by seven percent in 2006 - the largest  increase in five years.
Most corporations are investing more in training for three primary  reasons:
- Economic growth in many regions is putting greater demands on  training.
 
-  Talent shortages are being felt in all industry sectors and across  almost all geographies. Consequently, companies are putting more  emphasis on hiring and training new personnel and on training current  employees for new roles.
 
-  Increased focus on talent management. Corporations are increasingly  recognizing that learning and development is part of an integrated  talent management process that includes recruiting, performance  management, leadership development, and succession planning. 
 
2. Changing structure and operations of corporate trainingThe  most successful learning organizations have moved away from the  corporate university model to a shared services model. We define shared  services as an internal business function that provides consulting and  operational services to various groups throughout the enterprise. The  role of a shared services organization is to support business units in  achieving their business goals.
This shift is resulting in organizational changes. Shared services  organizations spend more on technology and outsourced services, thereby  allowing internal staff resources to focus more on strategy, business  alignment, measurement, and performance consulting. An indicator of this  trend is the fact that payroll spending is flat or declining in most  learning organizations – despite the overall increase in training  budgets. In 2006, the percent of training budget spent on payroll  declined by 11 percent.
3. New economics lead to increased use of outsourcingLike  IT and marketing, learning organizations are cost centers.  Historically, learning has been based upon a variable cost model. With  such a model, costs are directly dependent upon the number of employees  trained.
However, with the advent of e-learning, learning in most companies is  now based on a fixed plus variable cost model. This is because the use  of e-learning requires up-front investments in technology, development  tools, and content. These investments are fixed, no matter how many  employees are trained. This model gives companies the ability to reach  more employees and deliver more content for the same cost.
As a result of these new economics, learning organizations must  reallocate resources. Delivery-based positions are being replaced with  new positions in technology, content development, measurement, and  support.
Because technology and sophisticated content development require  specialized skills, learning organizations are relying more on  outsourcing services to help meet these needs. By implementing an  infrastructure that reaches many more employees at a far lower cost per  hour, the training organization can selectively outsource areas, which  are not core to the company’s expertise and focus.
4. Leadership development takes center stageLeadership  development and management education is the largest single program area  of spending in corporate training today.
This is not news; in our 2005 to 2006 research, we found the same  result. What is new is the push toward integrating leadership  development into talent management processes, such as succession  planning. Our talent management research indicates that, among all the  talent-related processes in HR, more focus is being given to leadership  development and succession planning than almost any other area (with  performance management coming in second).
The war for talent and changing workforce demographics mean that  companies in almost every industry sector are suffering from a lack of  middle managers. Companies must build from within their ranks. 41  percent of HR managers tell us that one of their top talent challenges  is building and maintaining their leadership pipeline.
5. Talent management drives changes in HRJust as  learning organizations are evolving, so is the HR organization. The  talent management drivers discussed throughout this article are moving  HR into the role of “steward” for its company’s talent management  processes. Today, it is not enough for HR to partner with lines of  business; it must understand and develop organizational capabilities.
In this new role, HR managers and executives must identify critical  talents required by the organization; integrate the business processes  involved in retaining and developing employees with these talents; and  provide ongoing workforce planning.
This integrated approach requires eliminating silos of processes and  information for compensation, performance management, leadership  development, and succession planning. It also requires better  integration of HR systems for a more complete view of the workforce.
HR’s changing role impacts learning organizations in these ways:
- Organizations are revamping, improving and automating performance  management. 
 
-  Performance management and corporate learning are being integrated,  as are the supporting system platforms. 
 
-  Organizations are rethinking core competencies.
 
-  New job roles and organization structures are emerging. 
 
6. E-learning matures and continues to evolveIn  2006, e-learning continued its evolution into a mainstream approach to  corporate training. Almost every organization we talk with has some form  of e-learning now available to their employees.
Questions that we now hear are those related to more sophisticated  uses of e-learning, covering topics such as:
-  Maintaining the volume yet increasing the quality of the  e-learning.
 
-  Adding simulations and other high-fidelity activities and exercises  to learning programs.
 
-  Reducing the cost and complexity of LMS implementations while  increasing use.
 
-  Creating learning environments in which employees can find just  what they need – including training, reference information, and  performance support.
 
-  Helping employees learn from each other through communities of  practice, blogs, wikis, and other forms of self-published content.
 
One of the most significant indications of e-learning maturity was  the acquisition of NETg by SkillSoft. From 2000 to 2005, these two  companies were among the fastest-growing e-learning companies in the  market. Today the off-the-shelf content market has become more and more  commoditized. The success of the “new” SkillSoft will depend on its  ability to answer these and other questions.
7. Learning content management is growingOur  research members tell us that delivering up-to-date content, coupled  with performance support, is now one of their top training issues. They  want to be able to:
- Quickly edit content when materials change
 
-  Republish content into printed materials and other forms
 
- Make content available as FAQs or searchable knowledge databases
 
-  Develop multi-language versions from the same source
 
-  More rapidly develop the content, using the skills of a wide  variety of SMEs
 
- Assign roles and responsibilities to their content developers 
 
These are all issues related to content management. We have  maintained for years that the LCMS market (learning content management  systems) would become more robust – and in 2006, this has happened. LCMS  companies such as EEDO, OutStart and Giunti Labs have implemented  solutions. Nearly every LMS vendor offers an LCM solution with its  platform. And almost one-third of our research members tell us they are  searching for and selecting some form of LCMS
8. Self-published content is becoming part of learningOver  the last 12 months, there has been an explosion in the use of blogs,  wikis and podcasting. This self-publishing trend has had a major impact  on our political systems and social networks. This same paradigm is  starting to change corporate organizations and we believe the training  organizations should try to harness it.
For instance, in any company, employees are continuously learning,  interacting, and developing new approaches to solving problems. How does  an organization share this collective wisdom, which is occurring in  real-time among workers? The answer appears to be through the use  self-publishing technologies.
Many companies are now experimenting. While there are no proven  approaches yet, they are showing tremendous potential.
9. e-learning approaches continue to evolveIn  2006, we saw significant growth in the use of application simulations  (made possible largely through low-cost, easy-to-use tools such as  Captivate) and rapid e-learning (through the use of tools such as Adobe  Connect, Articulate and others). We have also seen tremendous growth in  the use of online video (through Flash), business simulations and  performance-support portals to complement e-learning programs.  Webcasting continues to grow, with more than 10 different  solution-providers offering low-cost, live e-learning tools.
Big changes that took place in 2006 include the following.
-  Widespread adoption of blended learning
 
- Continuous growth in rapid e-learning as an approach
 
-  Establishment of the LCMS market
 
-  Focus on high-performance, high-fidelity online training: 
 
10. LMS market continues to changeAccording to  our research, the LMS market grew significantly in 2006. More than 40  percent of all organizations and more than 70 percent of large  enterprises have an LMS. Many companies are trying to consolidate  multiple systems. The LMS market for mid-sized companies is now  exploding, driven largely by the wide range of proven on-demand  solutions now available.
Most LMS vendors grew in 2006: Cornerstone OnDemand, GeoLearning,  Learn.com, NetDimensions, Oracle / PeopleSoft, Plateau, Saba, SAP and  SumTotal all saw significant growth.
The LMS market is also evolving. Companies are now looking to their  LMSs to integrate with other HR systems as a talent management platform.  Vendors have responded by aggressively building and buying technology  to deliver an integrated solution for performance management, learning  and development planning.
Our research indicates see great benefits from integrated learning  and performance management systems. While only a small number of  companies have implemented such a solution today, we believe that in  2007 most large LMS buyers will look for such integrated solutions.
Josh Bersin is president and founder of Bersin  & Associates.