The time and money wasted on corporate training

This is a pretty crazy title for an article written by someone who has run a corporate training business for over 25 years. The title alone may have already angered a few people in my industry. And if you are one of those people, you may wish to stop reading now.

$370b and 3.6b hrs are spent each year on corporate learning. And it's been increasing every year for the last 30 years! How much of this learning helps people improve is usually unknown and is generally unmeasured.

And what about the companies that are paying for all this learning? What's their ROI? Not only are they paying for the learning but they are paying their employees while they take that learning.

Get a group of 16 people on a course, calculate their hourly rate and then add that to the cost of the learning and, in many cases the cost doubles. Assuming we are all eventually going to go back to pre-COVID face to face training, add T&E to that cost.

So why do companies continue to train their people? Well, intuitively, building the skills and capability of the workforce makes sense. The problem is that most companies don't know what training makes a real difference for the people or the business. Don't get me wrong, there is some great corporate training out there, but with reference to the old John Wanamaker quote:

Measurement of learning effectiveness is one problem. An even bigger problem is how companies decide on what learning people take. Consideration is rarely taken for whether the individuals actually need the learning or whether the company needs those skills; mostly because no- one has established what skills their employees really need and there is little connection between the training people attend and the capability a company requires to achieve its business goals. So people end up attending training they don't need and companies end up paying for learning they don't need.

Ever come across the phrase 'training fatigue'? Employees are being asked to take more and more learning as that learning becomes more accessible through eLearning. Amid the COVID crisis in 2020, the global market for eLearning was estimated at US$250.8 Billion. It is projected to reach US$457.8 Billion by 2026!

As more training content is being created, the more time is spent by employees taking learning they don't need and the more money is spent by companies on learning that does not help them get to where they need to go.

So that is the problem, but what is the solution?

If we just take a step back for a moment and consider the reason why people and companies decide to develop people's capability through learning. It's not for entertainment or relaxation. It's not like watching Netflix. It is because they want to get somewhere or achieve something, usually as fast as possible.

Most companies we work with have business goals. Most leaders have some idea of what they need their people to do well to achieve those goals. The challenge is they don't know what their people's skill levels are now. So they don't know the gap that needs to be addressed.

Planning a learning journey is much like planning a physical journey.

You've probably used Google Maps at some point to get to where you want to go, right? Google Maps requires two pieces of information to map out a journey - 'Your Destination' and your 'Current Location'. Once these have been entered, the fastest route from A to B can be mapped out.

We decided to change the way corporate learning is planned and delivered by creating an online platform called skillseeker. It's kinda the 'Google Maps for Capability development'.

skillseeker translates company goals into capabilities for any role (The Destination), assesses individuals' skill levels (Current Location), and then connects people to the learning they need so they can get to the destination as quickly as possible. Like Google Maps, it continues to measure how everyone is progressing. Oh, and it also shows what learning is working and what is not.

Like to know more? We'd love to show you.