Would you get upset if you spent $1,000 on a watch that didn’t work? How about spending $40,000 on a car that didn’t run?
Would you be upset if you spent $97.5 billion on something that was never really used?
I’m not sure why corporate training waste is so widely accepted and corporations around the world are willing to spend that much without getting anything in return for that investment… or why they don’t seem to get too upset about it.
You can also check out a case study about using data to defeat corporate training waste.
Corporate Training Waste Infographic
As you can see from the following infographic about corporate training waste, there are some… er… issues with the way learning and development is being conducted.
Facts about Corporate Training Waste:
- A lot of money is being spent → Worldwide, companies spent $130 billion on corporate training.
- Not much happens as a result of that investment → Only 25% of training programs measurably improve business performance.
- We aren’t built for lecture → Humans forget 40% of what they’ve learned after 20 minutes and 60% after just 6 hours.
- L&D (Learning & Development) is not a good messenger → Only 5% of respondents reported that they are influenced by a learning & development department in order to access online materials.
- Terrible, painful design → 1 out of 3 employees say that “uninspiring content” is a barrier to learning.
What to do about Corporate Training Waste:
- Better visual experience → Students who view slides with a title, vivid imagery, and no bullet points exert less mental effort during a presentation testing than students who viewed traditional bullet point-laden slides.
- Supervisors must be engaged (or don’t bother) → Actions by an employee’s supervisor before and after a training event are the most essential factors as to whether an employee ever uses what she was trained on.
- What’s the rush? → Surgeons retained information better and had better surgical outcomes when they learned content over the space of several weeks compared to surgeons exposed to the same content crammed into a daylong workshop.
- Find the motivation → 76% of learners will complete a training course if it’ll help them do their jobs better and faster.
- Before spending all that money → 86% of “Top Deck” organizations complete and report on all pilot projects before implementing major initiatives (compared to 43% of all organizations).
Is there a bright side?
On the bright side, there are some clear steps that can be taken – indeed, that organizations should insist on – in order to increase the effectiveness of corporate training and reduce corporate training waste.
These five solutions are based on research and self-reported surveys. Have you tried anything on here? How has it gone for you?
What’s missing? What other solutions are available to transform learning programs into a results-driven, effective investment for organizations? How are you preventing corporate training waste?
Want more information on possible solutions? Try:
- Anything written by Will Thalheimer
- Art Kohn’s regular columns in Training Solutions online magazine
- ATD’s Science of Learning blog
