Is employee training and development more important to companies or workers themselves? There seems to be a consensus between parties that it’s crucial for mutual growth, but not a lot is done by the companies at this point.
Check out our compilation of employee training statistics that might make you rethink how you organize your workplace as a business owner—or rethink your job arrangements as an employee.
Both companies and employees could largely benefit from training programs and upskilling, but millennials seem to be especially willing to leave a job if they don’t feel like they’re improving.
Further developing their skills and learning new ones has become one of the most important aspects that today’s workers look for in a company. Providing the ground for progress can give organizations a significant hiring advantage.
The American Society for Training and Development has uncovered some interesting employee training statistics—apart from the disparity in profit margins compared to their competitors, companies eager to invest in training and development also have a 218% higher income per employee.
Millennials are uncompromising when it comes to development in the workplace—86% of them claim they would’ve stayed at their jobs if they were offered training by the employer.
Another 59% claim that development is an extremely important aspect to consider before applying for a certain position and for overall job satisfaction.
Training and employee retention go hand in hand—inadequate employee training accounts for 40% of resignations.
Additionally, companies that have less-than-impressive onboarding practices and aren’t eager at training new employees are twice as likely to lose employees.
Employee training and development is important, but it’s apparent that it’s not a well-thought-out process yet—at least according to these stats:
A thorough employee training survey by 24×7 Learning a few years back showed that one of the most problematic aspects of development programs is not addressing the actual needs of employees through training.
With 88% of surveyed learners not using the acquired knowledge, it’s important for companies to offer something of substance to their employees. Otherwise, the training is only a waste of money and time for everyone involved.
A recent Harvard Business Review survey disclosed that companies spend $350 billion on training their employees every year.
The problem? It’s ineffective, with the average money wasted per employee being $13,500.
Despite agreeing on the importance of employee training for the company’s growth, the employers still seem to be shockingly behind on this essential workplace issue.
Being willing to put aside a budget to invest in employees’ training is a key to their loyalty. The more they feel like their progress is being prioritized, the less likely they are to look for other opportunities.
All employee development statistics paint the same picture: workers are more than eager to improve their performance and learn new skills at the workplace.
Almost two-thirds of them consider a lack of employee training and development as one of the main reasons they’re unable to achieve their full potential at work, while another 70% feel they lack the proper training and skills for the job they’re entrusted with.
Over half of employees claim they learned the skills necessary to successfully do work tasks on their own.
Another 59% invest in their own skills and progress, at least to a certain extent.
The issue here is the disparity between what HR managers know and how much they’re actually trying to enable the employees’ progress.
A discouraging statistic comes from the US Bureau of Labor, indicating that managers working in a 100-workers firm provide 12 minutes of their time to train their employees—per month. Companies with 100–500 workers spend six minutes on employee training for the same period.
This indicates that the employee turnover rate could be lower for many companies if they’d start investing in a proper training and development program.
The motivation for 34% of workers who quit their jobs was the prospect of improvement and development at some other company.
The latest available expenditure report dates back to 2020 and the rollercoaster of the pandemic and its effects. There was an overall 82.5 billion dollars spent on training that year, but the number was already dropping compared to 2017 ($93 billion).
This makes the average training cost per employee as follows:
While there’s no rule that applies to all businesses (especially considering the inefficiency of most training programs), here’s how much time companies of different sizes allocated for training in 2020:
Current corporate training rates (at a 50,000-employee company) can earn you six figures—$100,953.
Those who work with average-sized corporations (with 100–499 employees) earn an average of $76,137. Interestingly, companies with less than one hundred employees pay the trainers an average of $81,759.
The 2022 employee training statistics show that training increases employee productivity.
Better trained employees are more likely to take more control over their work, engage in creative thinking and problem-solving process. Therefore, they need less supervision, which simultaneously makes them more satisfied with their jobs.
Sources
Clear Company, Gartner, Grovo, HBR, Huffpost, The Learning Wave, LinkedIn Learning, Lorman, Statista, Workplace Learning Report, ZenBusiness, 2020 Training Industry Report