Employers boost training spend to raise employee skills

Training budgets are set to increase as employers struggle to ensure that employees have the skills they need to do their jobs ñ and that managers can get the best out of them, according to new research today issued in IRS Employment Review, published by LexisNexis Butterworths.



Nearly nine out of ten (87%) of employers surveyed said that a key objective of training was to ensure that employee skills were up to scratch ñ a reflection of the difficulty employers have finding the right people in a tight labour market. Six out of ten (60%) cited the need to improve line managersí people skills.

The survey was conducted in March 2005 and includes responses from 68 HR managers and professionals across all industrial sectors. The research is published in the new edition of IRS Employment Review (www.irsemploymentreview.com).

Just over a third of employers (35%) plan to increase their learning and development budget in the next year, while just 12% plan to spend less. Half (50%) expect to keep the budget at the same level.
The amounts paid for training vary according to the sector concerned; annual training budgets in the private sector are generally higher, with the average spend per employee at 413 in private sector firms, compared with 150 in the public sector.

Other key findings include:

The amount allocated to training per employee appears to reduce as organisation size increases. The approximate spend per employee varies from 110 to 870 in smaller organisations, while the median figure is 420. For medium-sized employers, the amount spent on each employee ranges from 41 to 2,363, with a median figure of 208. Among larger organisations, the lowest spend per employee is 37 and the highest is 1,266, with a median of 167.

40% of respondents have not offered basic skills training, despite publicity about low levels of numeracy and literacy among the UK workforce.

Similarly, more than half (54%) the employers surveyed offer no language training, despite an increasingly international marketplace and a growing recognition of the value of foreign language skills.

Face-to-face learning methods are more popular than passive techniques, and are considered to be more effective. Formal classroom training, one-to-one coaching and external conferences are seen as most successful.

At least nine in 10 respondents (94%) use an external provider to deliver some training.

An increased emphasis on staff coaching means that coach training is now an important aspect of management development. More broadly, 88% of the IRS panel of respondents expect line managers to carry out at least some training activities.

The research revealed that coaching has become an important element of management training, with less than one in 10 (4%) respondents say this is irrelevant at their organisation.

Although only half the employers surveyed train managers to train others, almost nine in 10 (88%) expect line managers to carry out some training activities.

Most (82%) of the respondent organisations provide a specific management development programme. Of those that do not, 10% state that managers use their own resources to further their development.

Over one-third (40%) of respondents have concerns about the adequacy of their organisationís training provision.

IRS Employment Review managing editor, Mark Crail said:

ìEmployers are finding it very difficult to fill jobs at present ñ a reflection of the fairly healthy state of the economy. So one obvious solution is to providing existing staff with the skills they need to do their jobs better and to take on new responsibilities. We also know that employers that provide training are more attractive to people looking for work, so there is a double positive effect.

ìA key challenge for HR is to ensure that line managers take training seriously and that they themselves are equipped to develop their staff. Too many organisations expect their managers to train others without themselves having the skills to do so.î