Changes in employee motivation for education in companies before and during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

This article is based on an extensive longitudinal quantitative and qualitative analysis of a wide sample of Czech companies of various types and sizes. The focus is on the development of trends in employee motivation for education within Czech companies (N=1114) in the years 2016 and 2021. The aim is to analyse changes in the application of individual motives in time and to examine in detail their relationship to company size. Whereas the majority of current research into this topic examines the intrinsic motivation for education directly among employees, this article deals with the extrinsic sphere and concentrates on motivation strategies from the point of view of companies in the examined period and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Three external motives for employee motivation were examined in detail, namely career growth, financial remuneration, and the inclusion of education in regular evaluations. The research results suggest that large companies pay greater attention to motivating their employees to participate in further education, and that regardless of company size, companies prefer using non-financial means to do so, which is in line with current trends.