Talent development functions are increasing their focus on self-guided development, which makes user-generated content— learning content created by employees and shared using social media—a natural fit for their needs. While many organizations aren’t quite ready to relinquish control over the information workers access for guidance with their jobs, most talent development leaders don’t let those concerns stifle their social learning efforts. Instead, they build cultures that emphasize trust, teach employees how to share meaningful content, and formalize policies that clearly spell out expectations for social media use.

To better understand the strategies and practices talent development leaders are using to leverage social learning effectively, the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) partnered to research social learning and the approaches that are driving success. Social Learning: Developing Talent Through Connection, Contribution, and Collaboration found that 54 percent of learning leaders who shared their insights were actively using social media to support learning in their organizations.

Do most organizations embrace social learning? How are employees using social media in the workplace? With the plethora of platforms and tools available, which ones are organizations using? Are concerns justified when it comes to the content workers post online? What about the effects on talent development functions—what does social learning use mean for them?