Last year, U.S. companies spent roughly $90 billion on learning and development efforts, a sum higher than the gross domestic product of 130 countries. In 2018, the average American employee received training at a cost close to $1,000 per person. On its own that might not sound like much, but to put those numbers into perspective: for companies with headcounts of over 50,000 that’s around $50 million a year.
You Learn Best When You Learn Less
A survey of roughly 1,500 executives across industries, regions, and companies of various sizes, shows that one in five organizations do nothing to measure the impact of employee trainings. Of those that do, only 13% calculate quantifiable returns. It’s no wonder that two-thirds of employees think their training programs fail to improve business performance. What most companies miss is that learning at work isn’t about how many hours you put in, it’s about getting the right information to the right people at the right time. Rather than spending a large sum of money on expensive learning modules, organizations can use gentle, timely, and relatively simple means to turn intention into action. And, in doing so, they can boost the effectiveness of development programs and unlock the full potential of teams, without spending millions (or billions) on trainings. To get started make feedback a habit, set learning goals, and check in with employees on progress regularly, and if you do invest in training programs, define measures of success beforehand, then scrap the ones that don’t deliver results.