Reflecting the push to hybrid and remote work, employees report they are focusing their training investments on communication and project management, according to Udemy’s 2023 Workplace Learning Trends report.
Some top surging business skills on Udemy’s platform include customer experience management (up 449% year over year), nonverbal communication (up 268% year over year) and business communication (up 211% year over year). Project management and leadership, alongside communication, led as top consumed skills overall.
But employees — likely aware of a looming recession — also worked on job search skills, according to the report. Job search skills training surged 495%.
“Employees are looking for the next great work opportunity, even if their employers don’t know it, reflecting the ongoing effects of the Great Resignation and the Great ReShuffle,” the report said.
Lessons on personal productivity and time management remained the top two consumed personal skills overall, however, reflecting workers’ ongoing desire to manage stress and fight burnout, according to the report.
Learning programs can be a bridge to well-being for workers, one expert wrote for HR Dive earlier this year, especially if they are self-directed. And L&D — especially when it enables internal mobility — can be a boon for retention in an uncertain economic environment. That’s because employees who can envision themselves advancing at their current workplace may be less willing to leave, according to Eagle Hill Consulting data released in September.
