Don't Cut This. Not Even In This Dismal Economy

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Eye on the Workforce

  by - Joe Wynne

From big workforce issues to interpersonal interactions, we'll look for the latest and most effective solutions.

Communication | HR Mgmt | Leadership | Learning | Worker Selection

Don't Cut This. Not Even In This Dismal Economy

Training is one area where cost savings are found when the economy gets challenging. Leaders can stop training events, associated travel, room fees, time off from work, materials, and more. If they need more savings, they can fire training contractors and full time designer/developers and trainers. It's almost too easy.
 
Because it is too easy. When you cut the workforce, including trainers, you need those who are left to get all the required work done with financial and resource constraints hitting them from all directions. You need to squeeze the maximum revenue out of every employee.

A recent study (pdf) of 200 participants shows that the median revenue per employee where average learning days per employee is
  • Equal to or less than five days is $137,931
  • Greater than five days is $210,380
That's a serious difference - easily enough for training to pay for itself as long as the trainers and trainees are not taking the corporate jets to classes.* The study was undertaken jointly by APCQ, IBM and Workforce Management, and is part of an ongoing series of data collection initiatives. The writers of the report admit that the final numbers might be different if a different population is evaluated, but the point is made: Training and development enables employees to carry the extra weight.
 
So if your company is cutting training, do what you can to maintain appropriate (and cost-effective) training and development within your project. Believe me, you'll need every bit of revenue your workforce can generate in the coming months.
 
*Interesting side note...The corporate jets of the Detroit automobile companies have been busy taking their CEOs to Washington to ask for government loans.
 
(Full disclosure: I work for IBM, but have no connection with this study.)
| Posted: November 19, 2008 09:56 PM | Permalink | Email Notifications: OFF |


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