Thesis Working Title

Informal Learning in an Age of Hybrid Working: Creating Systems for Better Engagement

With more working environments becoming hybrid or remote, and a rapid growth in the kinds of technologies employees are using to learn, it is beneficial for businesses to be able to understand how opportunities for learning can be maximised across different situations and contexts in this new environment, thereby increasing innovation, employee development and retention.  

In addition to formal training, employees learn at least 80% of what they need to perform on the job from informal learning. This can be either self-directed, tacit, integrative, or incidental, and has been shown to become more prevalent where workers are left to direct their own activities.  

This research will look at how remote/hybrid employees engage with informal learning, what motivates such engagement, the role that technology plays, and the constraints around involvement, in order to help managers such as those in learning and development, and human resources, to integrate, design, and manage better learning experiences for employees going forward and promote a better culture of learning.