Businesses falling short of employee's training expectations

Businesses are failing to meet the career aspirations and training needs of their employees and "badly letting them down" as a result, according to research from IT and business skills provider Global Knowledge.

The study found that despite 72 per cent of employees viewing learning and development opportunities as important as salary when choosing their next job, many still face barriers from their employers in getting the training they want.

Of the 700 respondents, who were either responsible for learning and development, or employees within IT and commercial departments, more than half said they were not being given the budget for learning and development opportunities. A further 49 per cent of those surveyed stated they could not get the time off work to train.

"The survey shows that individuals and organisations are on different wavelengths when thinking about training," said Allan Pettman, UK managing director of Global Knowledge.

"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.

"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."

Researchers found that of the businesses that did invest in training, many failed to effectively monitor the ROI of the investments they are making.

One in five businesses said their company didn't check that learning had been effective and more than half said they relied only on observation to check new skills.

Just five per cent of employers asked employees to complete online post-learning assessments and only 26 per cent had follow-up discussions with staff to assess the value of the training they had done.