Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Artificial intelligenceSTEMLatest NewsLearning & developmentSkills shortages

Learnability: Is LQ the new IQ?

by Chris Gray 6 Dec 2019
by Chris Gray 6 Dec 2019

The concepts of IQ and EQ (emotional quotient) are well known by HR leaders, but should they be focusing their attention on LQ, or learnability quotient? Chris Gray explains its importance. 

Technology is transforming the business landscape. Advancements in automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning are helping businesses improve output and increase revenues. But how does such rapid development impact employees and hiring practices?

Media scaremongering has led some to believe that new technologies are here to replace human workers, when in fact the opposite is true. This is supported by research from Gartner, which indicates that AI will create more jobs than it replaces, adding 2.3 million jobs while eliminating 1.8 million jobs globally.

Learning and development

Learning and development survey 2019

Employees rate learning and development over salary 

Nevertheless, these technologies still shift the emphasis in assessment and recruitment. This means that employers should increasingly look for a new trait that will help them build teams to get the most from new technologies – and that’s LQ, or learnability quotient.

What is LQ?

While the terms IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional quotient) are well known by global employers, LQ is a new measurement gaining in recognition.

LQ refers to an individual’s desire and ability to quickly grow and adapt their skillset to remain employable throughout their working life.

Increasingly, professional success is determined by an individual’s ability to adapt to new challenges, change their mindset when dealing with different tasks and their willingness to take charge of their own career progression.

LQ represents a new way for employers and employees to assess their learning styles and recognises an individual’s ability to learn new skills and adapt quickly – you can even test your own LQ online.

How can we use LQ at work?

The speed of change within the modern workplace, largely driven by the constant introduction of new and evolving technologies, is making the capacity to learn ever more important.

Employers want people who are agile enough to thrive in their working environment now and in the future. At the same time, employees are looking to learn and accumulate new skills in a bid to remain relevant, employable and mobile.

What’s more, with skills shortages at a 12-year high and new areas of expertise appearing as quickly as old ones are made redundant, companies are developing talent as a way of future-proofing.

Our Skills Revolution 4.0 research revealed that by 2020, 84% of employers will be upskilling their workforce to keep up with innovation.

Organisations can no longer rely on finding talent to do the job just in time. Instead, they have to ensure the people they already have on board are able to learn the new skills required to keep up with competitors.

Learnability can also be an indicator of career mobility. An individual who shows signs of being a quick learner is likely to be agile and work their way up in a company. As organisations seek to invest and develop their best talent, having insight into learnability metrics will provide guidance on how best to enhance performance.

Those who can learn quickly will not only prove instrumental in growing the business, they can also work with other members of the team to demonstrate the value of LQ in the workplace.

Demand for digital

Demand for IT skills is growing, and rapidly. Almost two-thirds of companies are planning to increase headcount in IT roles, but at the same time, tech talent is scarce.

Furthermore, with technology evolving at pace, employers are trying to build a pipeline of talent ready to work with emerging technologies. Anticipating what the skills of the future might be is critical if organisations are going to build a sustainable pipeline of talent.

Finding people that are eager and have the capacity to learn is going to be essential if employers want to keep up with the pace of digital change. However, employers also have a role to play in equipping their people.

Establishing clear training programmes that upskill teams, or even appointing a Chief Learning Officer can help set a business apart from its competitors when it comes to embracing new technologies.

As the workplace continues to evolve, employability has become less about what you already know and more about your capacity to learn. While a CV can show an employer the background and existing knowledge of an individual, their ability to learn is ultimately going to be more important. If you can build a team that is hungry to learn and grow, so too will your business.

Talent management opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more talent management jobs

Avatar
Chris Gray

Chris Gray is brand leader at Manpower UK

previous post
Swathes of women taking long-term leave for female health symptoms
next post
Occupational mental health: putting your house in order

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Employees resigning in 2022: Survey shows ‘great resignation’...

24 May 2022

Tube strike on 6 June to see 4,000...

24 May 2022

Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022,...

24 May 2022

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Top 10 metrics HR leaders are using today...

24 May 2022

Hybrid working trends: ONS data on where people...

23 May 2022

Aspers casino cashier excluded by colleagues wins £75k...

23 May 2022

NHS should upskill admin staff to reduce waiting...

23 May 2022

Pay gap between CEOs and employees set to...

23 May 2022

Plan to enforce minimum service during rail strikes...

23 May 2022
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+