Everywhere, I read about economic concerns, downsizing, and reducing expenses. One counter-trend seems to be clear: continuing to invest in new learning is a worthwhile investment. Keeping the ‘human capital’ part of your business fresh and up to date is key to coming out of economic stress with the ability to thrive. And grow. And meet your clients’ needs for your services.
The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) runs numbers each year, publishing the US investment in staff training and development. The total is amazing: $ 3 billion dollars? $39 billion dollars? No: try this …ASTD estimates that U.S. organizations spent $134.39 billion on employee learning and development in 2007.
And what did we get for this investment? Not much. I have read that only 2 – 10% of the investment actually impacts the bottom line. 10% of $134 billion is still hefty, but what about the wasted money?
So where is the truth, residing between the need for investment in human capital and the wasted dollars of much training?
The basic premise remains true: provide sufficient training and do not economize on it. BUT, do demand certain measures of training. As a manager or CEO, do you have a plan for accountability? Does a frshly trained (or retrained) individual have a calendar of application and repetition to cement the new learning in his or her mind? Do you have a follow-up cycle to measure what different the training has made on performance? Sales? Cost reduction? Productivity? Innovation? If we are spending $134 billion, we should.
ASTD is a big believer in this, and supports training for trainers on ROI, return on investment for training (sometimes called ROTI). At Transition Management, we put this concept into action, creating performance plans that have hard calendar dates post-training. May we be of help with your training accountability plan?