UK Businesses Are Failing Employees on Training
London (UK), February 2011 - Research commissioned by IT and business skills provider Global Knowledge shows that businesses are failing to meet the career aspirations and training needs of their employees. Despite 72% of employees viewing learning and development opportunities as just as important as salary when choosing their next job, many still face barriers from their employers in getting the training they want.
The results were taken from over 700 respondents who were either responsible for learning and development or employees in IT and commercial departments. According to the research, 57% of employees claimed they weren't being given the budget for learning and development opportunities. A further 49% of those surveyed stated they couldn't get the time off work to train.
Of the businesses that did invest in training, many failed to effectively monitor the ROI of the investments they're making: A total of 21% of businesses confessed their company didn't check that learning had been effective. The vast majority (53%) said they relied on observation to check new skills. Just 5% of employers asked employees to complete online post-learning assessments, and only 26% had follow-up discussions with staff to assess the value of the training they'd done.
"The survey shows that individuals and organisations are on different wavelengths when thinking about training. Employees value training, yet it's sad to see that many employers are failing in their responsibility to match employees' passion to learn and develop", explains Allan Pettman, UK managing director of Global Knowledge.
"In tough economic times, it's more important than ever that employers help their staff to grow and innovate. Failure to invest in training places a burden on employees, many of whom are relying on their skills to remain employable and maintain career progression. These results would suggest that employers are badly letting them down."
The survey also assessed the uptake of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). The SFIA enables organisations to identify the skills they need and match them to relevant courses. While 56.9% of organisations wanted to know about the SFIA, only 9% were in the process of implementing it, and just 13% said it was already widely used the SFIA.
"Initiatives like the SFIA can help in aligning IT training to business goals, so it's surprising that so many companies are failing to adopt it in a climate where you would have expected them to be accounting for every penny", Allan adds. "It's clear that employers really should be doing more to invest in training; otherwise they'll face challenges of staff retention, motivation and encouraging innovation."
