Insufficient training practices and goals often lead to inefficient work environments. Employers feel their employees lack skills while employees become de-motivated and frustrated in their jobs.

There’s a very apparent disconnect between employers and employees when it comes to training, concludes the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and WSJ.com/Careers report, Critical Skills Needs and Resources for the Changing Workforce. More than 400 human resources (HR) professionals and 334 employees were polled and the results were revealed during the 60th Annual Conference of SHRM held this past June.

The report showed that 83 percent of employers preferred offering instructor-led workshops, 82 percent favored on-the-job training and 80 percent relied on continuing education programs. However, employees weren’t as enthused about employers’ chosen training approaches with only 69 percent of employees preferring on-the-job training and 52 percent citing coaching or mentoring as their preferred method. Employees named university or college courses as the most effective.

It’s no wonder then that employees aren’t satisfied with training, do not use what they learn or simply choose not to take advantage of the training opportunities. No more than half of the employees in the SHRM survey made use of available training.

Ken Moore, member of SHRM’s Organizational Development Special Expertise Panel and consultant with Ken Moore & Associates in Ballston Spa, N.Y., shared his thoughts on lack of employee participation at the conference saying:

The incentives and payoff may not be there or justified… . Skills training without a clear payoff is an exercise in futility. Employees who cannot apply new skills will quickly revert back to old tried and true methods. Managers who have to budget this training without recognizable payoff will balk at expenses. As a result, productivity and performance improvements will not be realized.

Couple that with the fact that sometimes companies just don’t have their heads on straight. They do not have a clear idea of what skills are needed now and for the long-term and who would benefit from learning these skills. Drew Stevens Consulting in St. Louis surveyed its clients and found that 90 percent of training programs conducted for these corporations result in only a 90- to 120-day productivity increase. Less than 20 percent of these companies realize sustainable productivity gains beyond 12 months.

“Rather than invest in an organization’s most vital assets — its employees — many organizations still believe employees are liabilities and treat them as such,” Drew Stevens tells gantthead.com. “… [C]ompanies’ priorities are way off the mark.”

These results should not be shocking as companies continue to cut training budgets. Companies spent an average of $1,102 per employee on training in 2008, according to Bersin & Associates, an Oakland, Calif.-based management consulting company. This number has not increased since 2007 despite many companies’ claims of increased investment in training.

Unsurprisingly, according to the aforementioned SHRM poll, 58 percent of HR professionals reported that some workers lack competencies needed to perform their jobs, up from 54 percent in 2005. Even more alarming is the fact that 55 percent of HR professionals who responded felt that “workers entering the job market in the next 10 years will lack the competencies that will make them successful in the workplace.”

This finding is not only key to employers, but even more so for employees in terms of engagement — and therefore motivation to stay in their current jobs or if they decide to leave. A recent independent survey commissioned by the Association of Accounting Technicians (via trainingzone.co.uk) polled 1,000 workers in the U.K. and found that 64 percent of those who received significant training, funded at least in part by their employers, said they were either motivated or extremely motivated about their careers. Those who did not receive significant training saw themselves in just a job versus a career, over 50 percent were only motivated occasionally, and nearly 25 percent only work to a level that “gets them by.”

Employees wanting to leave the drudgery of their current jobs but who do not have the skills desired by many companies will be faced with a dilemma. As jobseekers, it has become increasingly difficult to land a job without good technical and soft skills.

HR professionals responding to the SHRM poll shared some of the important skills they look for in potential employees. For experienced employees, adaptability/flexibility, critical thinking/problem solving, leadership, professionalism/work ethic and teamwork/collaboration were named as desired skills.

Make training a priority when selecting the company to work for, suggests gantthead.com. Research how much a company invests in its employees’ training and development. Good training programs can help improve working conditions as well as provide indispensable hard and soft skills useful for current and future jobs.

Resources

Critical Skills Needs and Resources for the Changing Workforce
Society for Human Resource Management and WSJ.com/Careers, June 2008

Training: Still a Low Priority
by Bob Weinstein
gantthead.com, June 28, 2008

Employees Need Training to Feel Motivated, Says Report
Trainingzone.co.uk, June 24, 2008