Training budgets fall foul of cuts, survey reveals

L&D managers say that training budgets are one of the first to be cut when times are hard, according to new research from KnowledgePool.

The managed learning company asked more than 100 L&D managers about their perception of training within their organisation and 61 per cent claim that cost cutting exercises during times of financial constraint hit the training budget hard and fast.

Despite this, 79 per cent agreed that the sector needed to improve the way training was evaluated and that return on investment in training could be improved - Kevin Lovell, learning consultancy director at KnowledgePool, is in support of this.

"Drastic L&D cuts are not the answer in these tough times," he said.

"Training that is tightly aligned to business goals is much more important. It ensures that businesses are in good shape to weather current storms and take advantage of the recovery when it comes. One of the great challenges for L&D is to take a business-orientated view of learning."

The problem, according to Lovell, is that it is much easier to see training as a cost rather than an investment, and cutting costs by improving efficiency or reducing waste is uncomfortable but defensible in the current climate.

"Our suggestion is that, rather than trying to assess the business benefit after the training, why not think about the likely business benefit before it takes place? You do it by asking these sorts of questions:

•    What business issues do you expect the training will resolve or diminish?

•    What business improvements or behavioural changes are you expecting to see after the training, that you can't see now?

•    What past experiences make you think that the proposed learning will achieve these changes?

"By asking these questions, you can quickly assess the business value of the proposed learning.  Having done that, a number of possibilities open up:

•    You can see how well your proposed learning aligns to the business strategy.

•    You can estimate the ROI of the proposed learning.

•    You can prioritise your learning according to the level of business impact.

•    You can tell your business managers the impact of not doing whatever training doesn't fit within the budget you've got.

•    You can begin to argue for training budget on a commercial business basis, instead of saying 'it's really important'.

"The important thing is you'll be talking to your business managers using commercial language they will understand," Lovell added.

"We are talking about estimates here, but our experience of analysing learning outcomes after the event shows that most outcomes are not unexpected and could have been anticipated at the outset."