Generations on the Same Page

Some 80 percent of respondents to a Jones/NCTI national survey of 422 employees across generations say it’s important or very important that their company provides training options to fit their learning style.

Despite perceptions of generation gaps between Baby Boomers and Generation Xers and Millennials, a Jones/ NCTI national survey of 422 employees found that the types of learning cited by all generations as the top four when it comes to “preferred style of learning” and “most helpful their current roles are (in order):

  1. One-on-one mentoring
  2. Traditional classroom learning
  3. Team collaboration
  4. Online courses

When the results were viewed by individual generation, Millennials, also known as “digital natives,” ranked game-based learning as their fourth preferred style of learning.

Other takeaways: • 80% of respondents across generations say it’s important or very important that their company provides training options to fit their learning style. • 7 in 10 respondents say job-related training and development opportunities affect their decision to stay with a company. • According to 70% of employees surveyed, companies are falling short when comparing corporate technology and training tools to personal technology. Also, employees say more companies need to provide more sharing, collaboration, and training tools in order to better support them in their current roles.

The full white paper, “What Gap? Generational Views on Learning and Technology in the Workplace,” is available for download at: www.jonesncti.com

Lorri Freifeld
Lorri Freifeld is the editor/publisher of Training magazine. She writes on a number of topics, including talent management, training technology, and leadership development. She spearheads two awards programs: the Training APEX Awards and Emerging Training Leaders. A writer/editor for the last 30 years, she has held editing positions at a variety of publications and holds a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University.