Changes in the Use of Employee Training Methods in Slovakia in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Quantitative and Qualitative Perspective

Human resources-related costs are the issue of cost cutting in any crisis. Especially the costs of employees’ training and development are the subject of effectivity improvement decision of a company. The reaction of companies to the pandemic situation in employee training and development is the focus of the study. The aim of this study was to identify methods that were used in employee education before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We assume that companies took action to be effective in training and development even under the pandemic impact. The study is based on a comparison of data between 2018 and 2023. According to sample conformity, we identify the differences in primary data gathered by questionnaire. Survey results proved that the number of enterprises implementing training increased after the pandemic. This is a positive reaction to the pandemic challenge with a strong impact on employees’ overall performance and satisfaction. We discovered that there were no changes in the order of use of these methods over the examined years. The same online learning methods (self-learning, e-learning, and video recordings) were used most frequently in both 2018 and 2023. Also, the use of the most frequent offline learning methods in Slovak companies is lower after the pandemic than before the pandemic.