For nearly a decade, The eLearning Guild’s Global eLearning Salary & Compensation Report has been recognized as the eLearning industry’s most trusted source of data on eLearning professionals’ salary and compensation. Our 2015 report updated all of our industry data and provided new features and resources.
In July, we surveyed Guild members and asked them to tell us about the 2015 report and identify ways we can make the 2016 report even better. We received some terrific feedback as well as numerous insights and detailed suggestions. The purpose of this research briefing is to send a sincere “thank you” back to all our respondents and provide everyone with an overview of results and key findings.
When we asked readers how often they quoted or otherwise used data from the 2015 Global eLearning Salary & Compensation Report, 19 percent said they used report data “often” and 72 percent said they “occasionally” referred to the report.
More specifically, we asked “how” they used information from the report. The majority of respondents (77 percent) said they used the report for reference purposes, while 65 percent relied upon report data as a source for personal action planning. This was welcomed feedback, as we introduced a new section to the 2015 report which explained specific steps for “taking action” on salary data and also provided a number of tools, reference materials, and other resources to help readers address their own (as well as others’) salary issues.
Figure 1 shows feedback from readers on issues related to format, length, and organization of the report, as well as topic relevancy and overall importance of the report.
Figure 1: How readers responded to the survey items
We also received important feedback about the quality and focus of the report and salary calculator. Here are some of our key findings.
- The salary calculator received a substantial number of positive comments and some useful suggestions for improving the 2016 version.
- The topics rated as “most insightful or useful” focused on regional salary data, salary trends, and salary comparisons by industry and job focus.
- In contrast, “least useful” topics tended to be those outside of the respondent’s geographical location or specific areas of interest (e.g., non-US respondents wanted less US data and more global data, US respondents wanted less global data and more US data).
- The “gender pay gap” remained highly controversial. For example, a large number of readers wanted more commentary and research about gender and pay differences, while a smaller number of others said gender was not an issue for them and they did not want more discussion of that topic. Our sense is that we should include more research and information about this important topic in the 2016 edition of the report.
- We received several comments about the placement of advertisements within the report and are considering suggestions to move these to the back of the 2016 edition.
- We are also considering ways to enhance accessibility to 2016 salary report data. These include the possibility of adding an Internet-based interface that improves search capabilities and better enables readers to navigate through sections of the report they are most interested in (and avoid those of less interest).
Please let us know if you have further comments or questions about our salary and compensation report. Again, we sincerely appreciate your feedback and look forward to making the 2016 report our best ever.
If you haven’t yet read the 2015 Global eLearning Salary & Compensation Report, you can read the report here.