According to People Management magazine last week, almost all candidates offered a choice of 2 jobs will opt for the one with L&D opportunities. When I say almost all, it’s a staggering 92%. That even surprised me. The attractiveness of softer skills training is also top of the list.

But if you think about it, in the “olden days”, careers were almost survival of the fittest in most organisations. Sink or swim was the induction process, lucky to have a job was the performance review and you’re too soft was the exit interview. I exaggerate, but you get the picture.

So in a world where skills shortages are critical in some industries (I’m thinking hospitality as one example), the approach of everyone gets the same induction, everyone has to do the standard training and everyone has an appraisal (I hate that word by the way) are coming to an end. Hurray!

Blended learning, asking people how they want to develop and having a more flexible approach to softer skills training can and is making employers who do so more attractive.

I remember back to the 80’s in my first role in the Civil Service, I could apply to go on a suite of courses, both technical and behavioural. In fact, it was eencouraged to go onto the courses as part of my role and to motivate me.

Sometimes, we don’t have to reinvent things, we just have to think that people are individuals and our L&D should reflect this.

Next time you advertise a role, why not put on it what learning opportunities there are as well as give them a list of duties that you expect them to carry out?

Need help putting your job descriptions or adverts together, get in touch today.

Happy Bank Holiday Weekend everyone!