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Developing middle managers tops L&D priority list for 2010, says new survey

Article By Elizabeth Eyre (27-01-2010) TrainingJournal.com

Organisations are pouring their resources into employees with the potential to lead them into an uncertain future, says a new survey released yesterday (Tuesday).

Rather than abandon learning and development in the face of the recession, organisations are looking to the long-term and making developing middle managers’ leadership and change-management skills a priority.

That’s according to Henley Business School’s Corporate Learning Priorities Survey 2010, which questioned 2,500 HR and L&D practitioners to provide a snapshot of the UK’s current L&D landscape.

It found that developing middle managers’ leadership skills and equipping them to deal with change were among participant organisations’ top priorities for this year, along with succession planning, attracting new talent, developing a coaching culture and developing the capability of HR and L&D teams.

“Managing directors, CEOs, HR directors and L&D professionals have adopted a pragmatic, level-headed, measured approach when faced with the tumultuous economic climate we have endured,” said Linda Irwin, Henley’s executive director, corporate development. “As one respondent commented in the survey, his organisation’s priority is to ‘ride out the storm that has been created by the recession without losing our A teams’.

“Rather than axing development budgets and cutting leadership development, they have focused effort on those individuals who they expect will lead their organisations into a future yet to be created. Softer skills, in leadership styles and in coaching for instance, that bring out the very best in people and facilitate team working are also a priority.”

Both the research and conversations Irwin had had with organisations showed many were planning for the long-term and were not making budget cuts that they could come to regret in the future.

Key findings from the research include:

Leadership development is the most important priority for all respondents. Developing middle managers is considered very important, with 67 per cent rating it as a number one or two priority compared to just 35 per cent rating leadership development for senior leaders one of their top five priorities
Succession planning and attracting new talent are key priorities this year, both increasing in importance since last year
Equipping managers for managing change is a specific development priority for 67 per cent of respondents
Establishing a coaching culture was one of the top five priorities of 61 per cent of respondents, although only 9 per cent made it number one
Fifty three per cent of respondents said sustainability was an L&D priority but it was ranked at the bottom end of the priority list by 68 per cent
Developing the capability of the HR/L&D team featured in the top five priorities of 36 per cent of respondents.

Irwin said: “It seems organisations are aligning their L&D priorities with their business objectives more closely than they have ever done before.”

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