Employee Training and Development: A Valuable Investment?

When managers are asked to scale down their budgets, one of the first line items cut is employee training and development. This is especially true in lean organizations where funds are carefully allocated and the focus is on the “here and now”—what must we do today to get the work completed now. And thus, training and development is axed. What is unfortunate about this reality is that it neglects to consider the costs associated with forgoing employee development—the negative financial impact on the “here and now” and the long run.

I recently stumbled across a Harvard Business Review article titled “Why Top Young Managers Are in a Nonstop Job Hunt” discussing why employees are exiting organizations. The article noted that many top performing employees are not receiving the training and career development they want in order to help them grow their skillsets, causing them to look for other employers that provide such support. The article stated:

“Dissatisfaction with some employee-development efforts appears to fuel many early exits.  We asked young managers what their employers do to help them grow in their jobs and what they’d like their employers to do, and found some large gaps.  Workers reported that companies generally satisfy their needs for on-the-job development and that they value these opportunities, which include high-visibility positions and significant increases in responsibility.   But they’re not getting much in the way of formal development, such as training, mentoring and coaching – things they also value highly.”

Losing a key employee or even multiple employees can be devastating to the achievement of strategic 

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