Employers are spending more on workplace learning and development - and the trend looks set to continue in the year ahead, according to research released today (10 September 2004) by IRS Employment Review, published by LexisNexis.
Nearly half (43%) the employers surveyed said spending had risen in the past two years - and just one in five said it had fallen. Looking ahead, just more than 50% of employers predict that spending will go on rising while just one in ten expects a fall.
Employers typically report that pressure to increase their learning and development budgets comes from the introduction of new regulatory climates in their sector, a change in senior management, or a rise in staff numbers.
The median budget for learning and development at survey organisations in 2004/05 is 80,000.
Specialist journal IRS Employment Review surveyed 79 organisations to find out what employers are doing to ensure that the money is well spent and whether they are getting a return on their investment (see notes to editors).
The full survey is available in the new issue (807) of IRS Employment Review (www.irsemploymentreview.com).
Key findings include:
- Only one of the 79 organisations surveyed does not evaluate learning and development activity.
- The ìhappy sheetî (see notes to editors) remains the most frequently used tool to assess training courses, and relatively few employers have sophisticated evaluation frameworks or models that link learning and development to business needs.
- Almost half (40%) consider their evaluation processes to be good, although a quarter believe evaluation in their organisation is ìpoorî or ìvery poorî.
- Most organisations that evaluate believe that learning and development is of great benefit to many aspects of business performance, improving the quality of products and services and raising the competence and technical skills of staff.
- Over three-quarters of organisations surveyed have an annual central budget for learning and development activity. Almost half the employers gave details of this yearís training budgets, which range from 10,000 at a sports governing body employing 108 staff, to 1 million or more at three larger organisations.
IRS Employment Review managing editor, Mark Crail said:
ìIf employers are looking for a return on their investment in learning and development, they need to know that it is delivering what they want. Training evaluation is big business in the US. And the UK government is encouraging British employers to make sure they benefit from the techniques it uses.
ìHowever, many employers see evaluation as too big and too complicated to attempt without specialist help and support. Evaluation can often take a back seat, and even slips off the agenda if training and HR departments are under pressure to deliver first and reflect later.î
The cost of learning and development in the workplace
Employers are spending more on workplace learning and development