Image from TLNT.com
The following excerpt is from TLNT.com article Investing in Employees: Smart Companies are Increasing their L&D Budgets. The article originally appeared on China Gorman’s blog at ChinaGorman.com.
A 2014 report from Bersin by Deloitte, The Corporate Learning Factbook 2014: Benchmarks, Trends, and Analysis of the U.S. Training Market relays some positive information regarding investment in employee development.
It says that businesses increased training budgets by an average of 15 percent last year, reflecting the highest growth rate in this area in the last seven years. It’s also likely that as the economy continues to mend, organizations are able to reinvest in areas that experienced significant cost cutting during the downturn.
At a time when there is discussion of a lack of specified skills in the talent pool, this would appear to be welcome news, particularly because this investment applies not only to short-term training.
Developing the next generation of leaders
Employers will have greater inventories of skills in-house and may not have to turn to the marketplace as often – or expensively – in coming years to support basic business operations. Additionally, by providing skills development to younger workers who are arriving with significant skills deficits, employers may be staunching the early talent drain from their organizations.
And, employees of all ages continue to need growing support to expand their knowledge and skill bases as the world of work continues to evolve and certain skills get harder and harder to find.
But the opportunity to develop management and leadership skills may be the most valuable investment for both sides of the employee-management relationship. It prepares the next generation of organizational leaders, it communicates a commitment to employees’ futures and it strengthens the ties between these two sides of the employment equation.
That high performing employers are spending 40 percent of corporate learning dollars on their future leadership talent would be a compelling component of any employer’s employee value proposition.
Read the full article at TLNT.com and visit ProfilesAsiaPacific.com for employee development solutions.
About the Author: John Pick
