SEATTLE, Oct. 29, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PayScale, Inc., the leader in modern compensation data and software, released a new report called Professional Development: What Employees Want. The new research was conducted in response to findings in PayScale’s most recent Compensation Best Practices Report that revealed a sizable 59 percent of respondents planned to invest in professional development as a retention strategy in 2019 to keep their best employees – second only to increasing pay at 61 percent. The report ranks preferred professional development programs and also provides specific insights into these programs by gender, industry, occupation and generation. The results show that management and leadership training is the most popular type of professional development, followed closely by professional certifications.
“In our competitive talent economy, more employers are realizing the value of professional development to define career pathways for their most ambitious employees and, ultimately, to retain their best people at the organization," said Wendy Brown, Director at PayScale. “While there are some significant trends, our research shows professional development is really not a one-size-fits all approach. Employers should take the time to truly understand which programs and training opportunities would be most important to help every employee progress in his or her career in a meaningful way.”
PayScale’s new research is designed to provide unique insights for employers to consider as they build their professional development programs at their organizations. Key findings include:
- Management & Leadership training was the top-ranked employee professional development program with 32 percent of respondents stating it was the training they were most interested in pursuing; followed by professional certification (30 percent) and technical skills training (17 percent).
- Several professional development programs proved to be less popular, as they were ranked “most interesting” by less than ten percent of respondents. These include teamwork/interpersonal skills training (8 percent), employer-subsidized degree (7 percent), communications/public speaking (4 percent) and diversity and inclusion training (2 percent).
- Men were more likely than women to say they wanted professional development to get a promotion (37 percent versus 32 percent), while women were more likely to state the reason was to receive a pay raise (35 percent versus 30 percent).
- Employees in the healthcare industry indicated they were most interested in professional certifications (36 percent) from the selection of training program options. Likewise, employees in human resources were the most likely to want professional certification (43 percent) when compared to other occupations.
- Millennials were more likely than Baby Boomers to be interested in professional development across the three top programs: management/leadership training, professional certification and technical skills training. However, Boomers were more interested in teamwork/interpersonal skills training and public speaking training than Millennials.
For additional insights about trends in professional development and more the results from PayScale’s Professional Development: What Employees Want research, please visit: http://www.payscale.com/data/professional-development-employees-want
About PayScale:
PayScale offers modern compensation software and the most precise, real-time, data-driven insights for employees and employers alike. More than 8,000 clients, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, use PayScale to power pay decisions for more than 23 million employees. These companies include Encana, Patagonia, The New York Times, Sunsweet, T-Mobile, United Health Group, Wendy's and Perry Ellis. For more information, please visit: https://www.payscale.com/ or follow PayScale on Twitter: https://twitter.com/payscale.
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