Special Report
Multiple choice
How to keep the training budget alive in an unstable economy
By Jessica Tremayne
Smart Business Pittsburgh | July 2009
Page 1 of 4
Tracey L. Missien, interim director of work force education and economic development, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
If you are toiling over what to do about training, you’re not alone.
Tuition reimbursement and continuing education look good on paper and are great recruitment and retention tools, but, as businesses are finding out, in today’s economy, those types of programs could also look more like a dispensable employee perk than a business necessity.
While academics will tell you it’s a mistake to cut training from the budget, those closest to financial reality will suggest trimming the fat and adopting a leaner training strategy that ties education to the company’s immediate needs. For most businesses, this means doing away with the nice-to-have training and focusing on the must-haves that affect the bottom line today.
“Training is very important to business continuity,” says Tracey L. Missien, interim director of work force education and economic development, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. “In this economy, even though up to a quarter of companies report that training is one of the first places to make budget cuts, most employers see training and skills enhancement as key to maximize productivity and profitability.”
Keep in mind that the usefulness of what is learned today doesn’t last as long as it once did. Technology’s rapid evolution makes knowledge obsolete when it isn’t built on. Still, the average number of formal training hours has dropped from 25 hours per learner in 2007 to 17.2 hours in 2008, according to Bersin & Associates’ 2009 Corporate Learning Factbook. The report reflects an 11 percent reduction in corporate training spending and claims a trend shift in the types of education that businesses are pursuing.
