Wasted Cash Value of Employee Training Programs

In 2018, billions of dollars were spent on corporate training and development across the United States.

Billion! The good news? The total amount of training investment has been on the rise for the better part of the past 30 years. Intuitively we know that developing employees is a good thing. However, the real problem is what happens after the training.  

For example, if an employee were to spend one day at a workshop on customer service, they would learn the basics about the importance of reliability, responsiveness, and relationships.  

The session would most likely break down as follows: 

• A few hours of learning, activities, self-reflection, table group exercises, and discussion. 
• A few hours of networking, food, breaks, drinks, etc. 

The hard costs to employers for the one day of training is as follows: 

• Facilitator: a couple thousand  
• Food & Catering: a couple thousand 
• Venue Rental: a couple thousand   
• Other costs 

The one day of training could end up costing the organization thousands of dollars! 

The investment itself for the one day is useful for a while, but the problem rests with what comes after. The typical next step for most organizations is that nothing else happens. Therefore, in the long haul, the time and money spend ends up being mostly wasted.  

So why it is wasteful? Employers expect that whatever was taught somehow magically gets absorbed (and applied) by the employees long after the training finishes. However, this is often like the studying of a class or the practicing of an instrument. If you stop learning and studying, you often forget.  

The solution? Any professional development that encourages employees to adapt or change their behavior—be it customer service, leadership, basically, any job where you are among other individuals—requires some form of follow-up and reinforcement to ensure the new knowledge is being applied. As new workdays spring up, so do new challenges. Many companies often go through employees as people retire or find new opportunities. No workplace is ever fully stable so neither should be its training.

Therefore, there may even be a need for updates to your old training. In the end, there no such thing as too much training, just not enough training. There is always room for improvement in any aspect of life and there is no such thing as perfection, especially in the workforce. Keep striving for greatness.