Employers turn their backs on training

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1705321608055-0’); });

February 19, 2010

Employers turn their backs on training

While 88% of UK employers polled acknowledge the importance of staff training, most are either put off by the cost or simply fail to make time to arrange it.

These are the findings of a survey undertaken among 1,100 organisations and 4,300 workers in the UK, France and Germany by software company Citrix to launch its new GoToTraining service.

The study, which specifically covered 500 UK organisations and 1,300 UK workers, found that, although nearly two thirds of respondents would, in theory, like to offer workers more training, some 56% did not do so due because of the expense involved. Another 54% just did not get round to making the time, while nearly a third were unhappy with personnel being away from their desks or out of the office ‘unnecessarily’.

If opting to go down the training route, however, employee development was cited as top of the agenda for most companies, with the biggest benefit perceived to be the enhancement of workers’ skill sets (88%). Such activity was also considered to boost loyalty and morale (63%).

And staff agreed. A huge 82% of those questioned believed that training opportunities were crucial in career development terms, while 78% considered training to be a key perk that they would specifically look out for when going for a new job.

Their key bugbears, particularly with compulsory sessions, however, were irrelevant content (52%), receiving out-of-date information (51%) and poor quality trainers (49%). While the majority of training is conducted by in-house personnel, one in four businesses said they were now using some form of online training.

Andrew Millard, Citrix GoTo Training’s director of ecommerce for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said that the research revealed the importance of training to both businesses and workers across Europe, but highlighted a number of issues affecting the quantity and quality of provision.

“Businesses all recognise the benefits training can bring such as a more skilled and loyal workforce, but expense, time, logistical and resourcing issues are proving to be barriers,” he added.