Nearly half of U.S. employers plans to spend more time and money on supervisory and executive-level development in 2007, according to a survey of more than 2,000 senior HR executives.

Supervisory/management skills and leadership/executive development ranked first and second among 11 categories of training. Other areas where training will be stepped up include sales/customer service and technical training related to a particular industry.

“We expect training and development budgets to remain relatively stable, but we always track subtle year-to-year shifts in priorities,” said Novations CEO and President Mike Hyter. “Greater focus on building management skills and bench strength has been a trend for at least three years. And it tells us organisations are worried about senior-level turnover and the loss of retirement-ready baby boomers.”

Among other trends Hyter expects to see in 2007:

• Blended learning solutions will continue to play a larger role.


• Employers will increasingly create alliances with training organistions in order to leverage resources more effectively. External trainers will be asked to develop specific competencies, while core needs will be met in-house.


• There will be growing pressure to calculate the value of training and development initiatives, particularly in diversity and inclusion.


• Generational issues will draw more attention as organizations address the gap between baby boomers and their replacements. Accordingly, succession planning will rise to the top of the training and development agenda.


• Organisations will expand talent management efforts that look at an employee’s entire life cycle in an integrated way.