The latest L&D news, reports, research and updates, personally compiled by TJ’s Editor, Jo Cook. This week: Explore why AI spam is flooding LinkedIn, social media feels less social, workers miss pre-AI life, meeting habits damage careers, jargon baffles Gen Z, overseas wellbeing slips, and AI reshapes learning priorities today.
Employers have adopted the job-relevant assessments, but personality tests are undermining them
New UK research from pre-hire assessment specialist ThriveMap suggests that most employers have already made the right call on assessment format, testing job-relevant skills and real work samples rather than relying on personality profiling alone. The problem is that many are still running personality tests alongside them, and it’s stopping the switch to skills-based hiring from paying off.
- 82% of talent acquisition managers use job-relevant skills or work-sample assessments, the format both employers and candidates rate as the fairest and most accurate
- Yet 56% still use personality tests too, despite only 10% of job seekers rating them as the fairest or most accurate form of assessment
- Only 11% say improving fairness or reducing bias is their main focus when choosing an assessment
Just half of employees expect survey feedback to lead to action
Only 53% of employees believe action will be taken after they provide feedback through workplace surveys, according to new research from People Insight. The employee listening specialist says the figure raises questions about how organisations respond to employee feedback and whether employees see evidence that their views lead to change.
The report, The Senior Leader’s Role in Employee Surveys, examines how organisations manage employee listening programmes after survey results are collected. It argues that senior leaders often support employee surveys but leave responsibility for responding to the findings to HR teams and line managers.
Newly identified MRI biomarkers reveal physical brain changes from cognitive training, study finds
A new neuroimaging study published in the journal Brain Imaging and Behavior provides some of the first evidence that strengthening your brain health through daily habits rewires its physical architecture.
The brain’s structure can be rewired: Self-reported improvements in the BrainHealth Index were significantly linked to underlying, state-like changes in the brain’s neuroanatomy, reinforcing that neural efficiency drives structural optimization across adulthood.
Businesses race to make AI a workplace requirement as firms struggle to build AI-ready workforces
A study of UK business leaders responsible for hiring AI talent found more than three-quarters (77%) expect AI proficiency to become a baseline requirement across most non-technical roles within the next two years. More than four in five (82%) are investing in AI upskilling or reskilling, while 80% say they have a defined strategy for sourcing strong AI-skilled candidates.
Yet there is no clear blueprint for how organisations are building that capability. When it comes to attracting AI talent, no single approach has emerged as the dominant model: 35% build talent communities and nurture sequences featuring AI content, 31% use applicant tracking system tagging and 29% rely on referral campaigns.
The same pattern is reflected in learning and development. Around one in three organisations provide funded AI learning (33%), protected time for employees to practise with AI (33%) or prompt and workflow libraries (31%). This suggests employers are experimenting with a range of approaches rather than following a common model.
LinkedIn is seeing the worst impacts of AI spam with 41% of all long-form posts in the app showing indicators that they were created by AI tools
According to Pangram’s tracking, which is based on the average measurement across social media platforms, LinkedIn hosts the most AI-generated content, followed by X, where around a third of long-form posts are seemingly written by AI.
What’s the point of social apps, if none of what’s being posted is real and if they’re no longer a means to showcase personal experiences and create connections.
Social media is becoming less social
A recent study published by Incogni found that social media dynamics are shifting, becoming less about social posting and updates, and more about entertainment, algorithms and short-form content.
The insights are based on a survey of 1,000 Americans who were asked about their social media usage and how it’s changed over the past few years. The results reflect what broader trend data suggests. First, in terms of posting, the data found that 55% of respondents are posting less to social media now than they did five years ago.
The great AI regret: Two-thirds of workers feel nostalgic for pre-AI work
A wave of pre-AI nostalgia is sweeping through the modern workplace, as new research from digital transformation consultancy Adaptavist reveals that two-thirds (65%) of knowledge workers regularly feel nostalgic for how work operated before generative AI, and 38% say they would remove GenAI tools from the world entirely if they had the chance.
Nearly a third (30%) of respondents said they preferred how work operated before GenAI tools were widely adopted, with a further 26% expressing no preference either way. The desire to turn back the clock is stronger among younger workers: 40% of both Gen Z and Millennials say they would remove GenAI from the world, compared to 32% of Gen X and 29% of Boomers.
Almost one in three UK employees scroll their phone in meetings, Careerminds research finds
Careerminds UK surveyed 600 UK employees to learn which work behaviours are most likely to hold careers back. From chronic lateness and missed deadlines to ignored messages, and phone scrolling in meetings, Careerminds UK examining how these actions vary by seniority, age and gender.
Key findings:
- Almost 1 in 3 UK employees (31.7%) admit to scrolling on their phone during a meeting in the past month
- UK employees admit to taking part in an average of 2.7 career-damaging habits a month, with 44.2% owning up to 3 or more
- Completing personal tasks during working hours (37.2%) and leaving emails unread for over 24 hours (35.5%) were the most common bad habits
Are you ready for self-employment?
The Freelance Readiness Scorecard from L&D Free Spirits is just five minutes, five areas (mindset, money, expertise, network and the practical stuff), and you’ll get a score with a breakdown to see where you’ve landed.
You’ll also get recommendations based on your actual results, so if your finances are solid but your network’s gone a bit quiet, that’s what you’ll get pointed towards.
Gen Z employees understand hardly any office jargon
New research from Careerminds UK shows an office language barrier may be waiting to greet them on their first day of work. It’s a hurdle plenty of workers already know well, with a 2023 Duolingo and LinkedIn report finding that 58% of professionals think their colleagues overuse jargon and 60% are left to work out what it all means on their own.
With that in mind, Careerminds UK surveyed 600 UK employees on how well they understand the phrases that fill the modern working day and whether they could explain them each one to a colleague without looking it up.
Key findings:
- Gen Z understands just 1 in 5 corporate phrases (5.3 of out 24), the fewest of any generation, despite being the most digitally native
- UK employees understand an average of 7 out of 24 common workplace phrases, with nearly half (48.8%) understanding five or fewer
- ‘In the loop’ is the most widely understood phrase (57.3%), and ‘ideate’ the least, recognised by just 1 in 23 (4.3%)
A third of businesses do not prioritise the health and wellbeing of overseas employees
Nearly a third of businesses (32%) do not prioritise the health and wellbeing of their employees abroad, according to new research1 from the international employee benefits experts at Everywhen. Furthermore, just 60% of employers stated that the safety of overseas employees is a top priority.
This is a worrying result for the employees themselves, but also for their employers, who may be failing to comply with regulations, and possibly failing in their duty of care. Combined with the fact that 26% of employers worry that their employees will be unhappy and want to return home, employers who take action are likely to see positive outcomes all round.
AI in L&D: The 2026 survey from Donald H Taylor
L&D’s goals in using AI, and the progress and barriers on the way: The results, along with a set of accompanying case studies, will be published in September.
Whatever your involvement with AI, we hope you will share your thoughts here. Even if you’re sceptical about it, or using it very little (or not at all!), we would love to have your voice represented.
Business founders don’t trust AI, yet half are leaking sensitive data anyway, Startups report reveals
Startups looking to sidestep the risks of public AI with custom stacks are also facing roadblocks, with 62% wasting AI budgets on fixing broken connections between isolated tools. This is leaving business founders with a dilemma: accept the risk, or absorb the costs.
To help you navigate this quandary, Startups have partnered with Sage to release the definitive 2026 report and playbook for founders: ‘The Startup AI Paradox’.
AI drives every major learning priority as work changes
Artificial intelligence has become the catalyst behind the priorities for workplace learning teams, according to David Perring, Chief Insights Officer at Fosway Group. The research shows AI upskilling and reskilling, business transformation, career development and business improvement have risen to the top of learning leaders’ agendas. Perring said these priorities are closely connected because organisations are rethinking how work is organised, how technology is adopted and how employees develop new capabilities.
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