Front-Line Development Disconnect

Of the organizations that track it, most organizations (58%) indicate that fewer than half of front-line workers actually access available development opportunities, according to new research by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) and the Aspen Institute’s UpSkill America.

New research by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) and the Aspen Institute’s UpSkill America found that while 89% of organizations currently offer development opportunities to front-line workers, and 98% of these indicate plans to maintain or grow these programs, the majority of respondents (73%) indicate that they either don’t know how many front-line workers take advantage of development opportunities or that their organizations don’t track that metric. Some 59% also do not measure and reward managers for developing these workers. The study, “Developing America’s Frontline Workers,” included input from leaders at 365 U.S. employers.

Other key findings:

  • Of the organizations that track it, most organizations (58%) indicate that fewer than half of front-line workers actually access available development opportunities.
  • Not tracking manager effectiveness at developing front-line workers is correlated with poor market performance and is pervasive among low-performance organizations (63% vs. only 29% of high-performance organizations). Market performance is defined as recent multi-year growth in revenue, market share, profitability, and customer satisfaction.
  • While only 34% of organizations reward line leaders who encourage workers to take advantage of provided opportunities, it’s a practice that is 2.5 times more prevalent at highperformance organizations.

For more information, visit: http://www.i4cp.com/upskill

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.