The pandemic has crept into its third year and the end is still not in sight.

Its toll on the workplace is high. The skills gap is deepening, quit rates are spiraling out of control, and stress and burnout are ravaging the workforce.

To respond to these challenges, leaders have turned to learning and development (L&D) teams, giving them a seat at the C-suite table for the first time. L&D has become one of the key catalysts in smoothing the shift from an in-person to a digital-first work setting.

And data from a new research by  Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and TalentLMS, a learning management system backed by Epignosis,  indicates that companies will invest even more in learning and development this year.

67% of HR managers will have an increased L&D budget in 2022, says the new research.

While the most frequent annual L&D budgets are $500 – $1,000 (29%) and $1,000 – $3,000 (28%), it’s interesting to see that 15% of companies are spending over $5k on training and development for each employee.

Forty-six percent already have specific training in place for new graduates who are entering the workforce and 42% offer training to support the re-entry of formerly retired employees.

“While we're going through what's considered the biggest talent shortage in decades, with half of companies facing a skills gap, HR managers recognize the importance of bringing different generations of workers together, and of training on both hard and soft skills,” says Christina Gialleli, Director of People Operations at Epignosis.

The report also uncovers the rising importance of mental health and well-being training for the employee experience in the post-pandemic workplace.

Seventy-two percent of HR managers would invest in mental health and well-being training if they had a higher L&D budget, and 77% of HR managers are likely to focus on life skills within the next 12 months.

While employees are overall satisfied with the L&D in their companies (75%), the findings from the employee survey shed light on the gaps that exist in today’s workforce.

According to employees:

• 55% say they need additional training to perform better in their roles
• 38% advise companies to align training with job responsibilities, 32% believe it’s important to update training content more frequently, and 32% believe training should be more social.
• One in two employees is pursuing learning opportunities on their own, outside of training at work.

“These statistics prove how critical it is for today’s leaders to focus on talent development. The growth of our businesses depend on pushing people beyond their boundaries,” says Jeanne Morris, Vice President of Education at SHRM.

Here are the other key findings:

• 76% of employees agree that they are more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training
• Reinforcing positive employee experience is the leading L&D goal for over 9 in 10 organizations
• 85% of HR leaders find training beneficial for organizational growth
• More than 1 in 2 companies are facing a skills gap, and half of them are addressing it by training existing employees
• Self-management will be among the top in-demand skills in 2022, with 83% of organizations focusing training initiatives on it
• 46% of companies have specific training in place for new grads who are just entering the workforce
• Over half of HR leaders will provide their employees with upskilling (59%) and reskilling (55%) training in 2022
• According to employees, companies can make training more effective by aligning training with job responsibilities, updating training content more frequently, and making training more social
• Getting DE&I training is important to 25% of employees, while 40% of companies are providing it
• L&D budgets have increased since the pandemic outbreak for 57% of organizations

The report comprises two surveys, which were conducted online between January 29 and February 20, 2022, among two sample groups of US employees. One sample group includes 356 full-time employed respondents whose organizational role is HR manager and who are managing L&D initiatives in their companies, or are involved with them. The other sample group includes 1,001 full-time employees who have received training from their employer in the last 12 months, in addition to onboarding.