UK companies 'oblivious' to training spend

~ Lack of adequate assessment tools means companies miss out on top employees ~

Two thirds of businesses don’t know how to adequately assess their training investment, according to a recent survey by Parity, the IT and business solutions provider.

This is despite nearly 70 per cent of respondents ranking learning and development as important as salary and other benefits when looking for a new job.

Many companies evaluation of training effectiveness consists of no more than a post-learning discussion with a line manager (46%) or ‘observing’ new skills in the workplace (45%).

“This ad-hoc, informal evaluation is often undertaken by untrained individuals using inaccurate tools, leaving businesses oblivious to their training spend and the actual positive output for the investment,” said Allan Pettman, managing director at Parity Training.

“During tight economic times, ROI is critical to every investment,” continued Pettman. “Each pound spent needs to contribute to delivering organisational goals. The Board deems certain investments a necessity, but often training isn’t considered one of them. However, when employees see training on an equal par to pay, businesses need to have an adequate programme in place to meet their expectations, and therefore secure top talent.”

43% of respondents claimed making sure new skills are applied in the workplace would have the most positive impact in their organisation. 39% stated that aligning skill development plans to business goals would have a similar constructive influence.

“This thirst for effective evaluation highlights that a company’s training investment needs to be assessed, especially in a ‘business case’ climate, to ensure it is aligned to overarching business goals,” concluded Pettman.

About Parity Training Ltd

Parity Training provides learning programmes designed to help companies improve business performance through developing people. We work with clients to deliver propositions in three areas of specialism:

• Project and programme management – building the skills and competence of project communities and optimising the use of methods and tools to support business objectives.
• Service management – education programmes in the design and delivery of Service excellence to support organisational change and industry best practices such as IT Infrastructure Library® (ITIL®) 
• Business systems analysis and design – proven, powerful methods and techniques to improve business intelligence, development and drive business performance.

Parity uses innovative delivery to build engaging and flexible learning programmes designed to meet business requirements.

Parity is the UK’s market leader in the three specialist areas, having trained over one million people through its work with organisations in the public and private sectors including HBOS, BT, Accenture, Metropolitan Police, Ministry of Defence, Department for Transport, the Home Office and Department for Works and Pensions.

Our expertise is recognised through our accreditations as an IITT Gold Standard Training Provider, SFIA Accredited Partner and our BCS ’trusted source’ status. We are also accredited by the APM Group (APMG), APM, ISEB, PMI and the Open Group to run courses leading to internationally recognised qualifications.

http://www.paritytraining.com

For more information, please contact:

Katie Franklin at Parity Training
k.franklin@parity.net
+44 (0) 845 873 6946