Employers must rethink digital learning to develop managers

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Digital learning may be nothing new, but companies need to rethink how they use it to develop managers' skills and get the right outcomes for the organisation, says Ian Myson from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). Our leisure and working lives have been revolutionised by digital technology. The rise of social media in the last decade has transformed our expectations about how we do business, how we communicate, and how we connect and share. The potential for it to change how we learn to lead is every bit as big. But has that potential yet been realised? Not according to many of the managers surveyed by CMI. The findings of "Learning to lead: the digital potential" reveal that many employers need to rethink how they go about helping their managers and leaders develop their professional skills. According to 1,184 UK managers surveyed for the report, nearly all (97%) spend at least one day a year developing skills through digital learning. However, four in five (79%) managers believe that their organisation is not "realising digital learning potential" of smartphone and tablet web-enabled apps they now take for granted.

Perceptions of digital learning

Almost seven in 10 (69%) perceive cost-cutting to be the main reason why their employers opt for digital learning, compared to just one-fifth who believe it is used to improve the quality of teaching. More than one in three (37%) surveyed said that the courses are "poorly aligned with their organisation’s objectives". Counterintuitively, the report finds that younger managers a