Linnaea Newman

Spending on Employee Training Remains Stable

According to Leah Carlson,
Employee Benefit News

"Corporate investment in employee training has remained constant, while technology use in training programs has grown, partly due to the expanding size and scope of some businesses.

That’s the main message from the American Society for Training & Development’s latest report. The organization’s survey of 344 employers yielded these key findings:

• Technology-based programs were expected to account for 29.4% of employee training last year, up from 23.6% the previous year.
• Employers expected to spend about $812 per employee on training last year, which is similar to previous years.
• Employers expected to provide about 30 hours of training per employee last year, up from 26 the previous year.
• Management, IT and business practices were among the most common training topics last year.

A recent EBN Quickpoll garnered similar results. About 32% of respondents said they use technology very often to deliver training programs, while 38% said they use it sometimes, and 30% said they don’t use it.

Brenda Sugrue, ASTD’s senior director of research explains, “Investing in employee learning continues to be a priority for business leaders. Organizations are linking learning to performance and the bottom line, and they understand the relationship between creating a skilled workforce and achieving enterprise-wide success. … The perceived and demonstrated value of training is increasing.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the lower birth rates during the 1960s-70s will create a 6 million person shortage in the American work force by 2008, and a 40 million person shortage by the year 2015.  Add to that the number of retiring baby boomers, and we are in the middle of a labor deficit, with every company vying for the same potential employees. 

The people available to fill the void are the GenX and GenY workers, who are as different from the baby boomer generation as we are from our parent’s generation. 

1999 American work force

13% Veteran Generation

48% Baby Boomers

23% Generation X

16% Generation Y

In the past seven years, the numbers in the first two categories have continued to decline due to death and retirement, while the last two categories have increased.  In order to grow successfully into the future, we must widen our managerial skills.

GenX and GenY are proficient computer users. Consequently, an organization’s web site is a particularly important recruitment tool for younger workers. Make sure the employment characteristics that matter most to them - such as mentoring and skill-building opportunities - are featured prominently.

As Generations X and Y move into the workforce, they’ll pose real challenges for plantscaping managers. Some of the current patterns will have to change, like scheduling, for example. "Cutting-edge organizations build flexibility into schedules in incredibly creative ways," says Sharon Jordan-Evans, a retention expert and executive coach in Woodland Hills, CA.. "It’s hard work but this is the only way you’ll hang onto GenXers and manage them effectively."

In the past, the plantscaping organization has run on the backs of dedicated people willing to work extra hours, and put clients’ needs above their own. "We don’t really know what level of resources it takes to run a plant maintenance service," Jordan-Evans says. "In the past, technicians worked extra hours and managers worked 60-hour weeks. They enabled a dysfunctional system to limp along. We cannot expect this to continue."

She adds, "The key to managing GenX and GenY is to ask them what matters to them, and really listen to their responses. Even more, it’s time to engage them in helping to figure out solutions. Before long, it is going to be their organization."

Check out the related article on the Leadership Capital Group www.legsearch.com/news/cio01.htm

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

~Mahatma Ghandi

"I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."

~ Robert McCloskey

 CalScape 2006 was held October 11-13 in the beautiful (and sunny) Palm Springs Convention Center, while the northern Midwest and Eastern states received their first significant snowfall(s).  Although I hated to miss the first measurable snow, what I learned and did at CalScape were worth considerably more than the time and money I spent to be there.

1.  The keynote speaker, Patricia Fripp, alone was more than worth the price of admission. 

Yes, I’ve heard her before, and yet I can’t tell you how valuable it was for me and my business to hear her this year.  First of all, she has lived what she teaches, and can put hard numbers to her advice.  Secondly, she is constantly reinventing herself so she instructs along a continuum, as she continues to develop.  Most importantly, I am different from when I heard her last, and even if she had given the same talk (which she didn’t), I got to hear what I most needed to learn this year, and it’s much less painful to learn in an encapsulated form than through the painful experiential process.

2.  If you want to know what kind of company/employees/clients you deserve, look at the ones you’ve got. 

There are no accidents, and our companies reflect our development, both good and bad.  Can’t find or keep  "good" people?  What kind of person/boss are you?  Do customers keep shopping around for a better price?  Maybe we’ve failed to provide them the value they require, or inquired how they prefer that we provide it.  If the reflection we see is painful, that is our indication that it’s time to change.

3.  We are firmly into the age of modern technology, and those of us who do not yet have a web presence will lose more money than we would have spent to create a web site. 

Don’t know how to do it, and have no time to learn?  Perfect!  Neither did I, but here I am, right in the middle of the information age.  Click on BrightCite under "Resources" on my home page, and find out how easy it can be to create your own interactive web site.  Your increased sales are their own reward.

We have a great industry, and I couldn’t be prouder of the award winning companies at CalScape that make our industry look good.  They raise the bar, make me stand a little prouder, and make me want to do a little more to give back to the industry that has provided me my livlihood for the past 30 years.

PIA Cares is just one way that many of our industry’s leaders give generously of their time and materials to beautify with plants those non-profit organizations that have NO budget for what we do.  Providing the beautiful plants to places that could never afford them makes plants seem like less of a luxury, and more of a necessity.  Everybody wins.

There will be more snowfalls throughout this season, but there will never be another CalScape 2006, and I for one am grateful that I did not miss it.

Return on investment tells you the percentage return you have made over a specified period as a result of investing in a training program. On the assumption that benefits will continue to accrue some time after the training, then the period that you specify is critical to the ROI figure you will obtain.

You may like to specify a period that fits in well with your organization’s planning cycle – perhaps a year or two years. On the other hand, you may wish to calculate the period to correspond to the lifetime of the benefit, in which case you will need to know how long the average trainee stays in a position in which they can continue to apply the knowledge and skills being taught.

It is relatively simple to calculate return on investment:

% ROI = (benefits / costs) x 100

Payback period
Another way at looking at ROI, is to calculate how many months it will take before the benefits of the training match the costs and the training pays for itself. This is called the payback period:

payback period = costs / monthly benefits

Payback period is a powerful measure. If the figure is relatively low – perhaps only a few months – then it makes much more sense to increase training investment. As a measure, it also has the advantage of not requiring an arbitrary benefit period to be specified.

Bottom line - employee training should be treated as any other business activity.  It’s ROI should be measured so that you can allocate appropriate resources and understand the impact it can make on the future success of your company.