ON24 Survey: Employees Identify Best and Worst On-the-Job Training Programs

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.— January 29, 2013— ON24, Inc., the global leader in webcasting and virtual event solutions, today announced the findings of its 2013 Employee Training Survey of over 500 American workers, aged 18 and older, conducted online by uSamp this month. The survey, which was aimed at revealing how employees regard on-the-job training, found that fully 100% of the respondents say that employee training is important – but that not all industries train their staffs successfully.

Not surprisingly, medical/pharmaceutical was ranked highest (75%) on the list of industries in which training is required, followed by education (65%) and finance/banking (60%). However, these industries did not necessarily track with the industries named as having the best training. For example, while 53% said that government employee training is “crucial,” only 9% said these workers are actually well trained, putting them last on the list of well-trained employees.

This is how the respondents ranked the effectiveness of employee training programs in various industries, with medical/pharmaceutical ranked highest at 49%.

• Medical/pharmaceutical – 49%
• Technology – 30%
• Education – 27%
• Accounting – 24%

Most office workers believe that employee training is good or even very good (69%) at their companies. However, at the same time, 84% say there are problems with employee training. The top concern they listed is that training only happens occasionally (48%), followed by training content that is inconsistent (45%). Other concerns included:

• Training material is boring and not up-to-date (25%)
• Training is inconvenient (22%)

This contrasts dramatically with perceptions of virtual training specifically; some 80% agreed that virtual training is convenient, because “I can participate anywhere, anytime, using any computing or mobile device.” Another key virtual training benefit cited by most respondents was the easy online access to materials and information (56%).

At 55%, most respondents named new employee onboarding as the most needed training application. In addition, when asked to explain why training is a priority where they work, a significant majority – 80% – said that training helps improve individual job performance.

According to ON24 Chief Marketing Officer Denise Persson, the Employee Training Survey was the first survey of its kind to measure the attitudes and preferences of trainees, instead of trainers. “The study clearly shows that some industries have come further along than others, but the one thing absolutely everyone in the study agreed with is that training is important,” said Persson. “These are insights that our customers, HR and training professionals, will find helpful as they adopt innovative training solutions.” She added that the development of new and exciting virtual talent management solutions continues to be a key initiative at ON24.

About ON24, Inc.
ON24, the virtual communications platform for the global enterprise, provides interactive, impactful cloud-based solutions that drive outstanding results. ON24 offers a broad and innovative product portfolio, including webcasting, virtual events and virtual environments, accessible from any device and supported by robust reporting and analytics. Applications for the ON24 platform include demand generation, partner enablement, training, product launches, company town hall meetings and user conferences. More than 700 organizations, including IBM, CA Technologies, Merck, Unilever, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, Amazon and New York Life, rely on ON24. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices throughout the world. For more information, visit https://www.ON24.com.