Few dispute the importance of developing a workforce full of well-trained employees. But no matter how carefully workers are recruited and hired, most employers realize not everybody lands in a new job with all the skills and knowledge the employer desires. And certainly longtime employees can’t be expected to stay on top of their game without at least periodic training. 
So the task of keeping employees well-trained is top of mind for many employers, and it’s often the human resources department that’s responsible for making the necessary training happen. A recent survey from Business and Legal Resources shows that HR is involved in various facets of training, including deciding the content and format of employer programs and how to allocate training dollars.
The survey gathered information from 976 participants representing a variety of industries. Privately owned for-profit organizations, not-for-profits, public corporations, and government employers were included in the survey.
The results show that 59.8 percent of the respondents said HR decides what training is needed. Also, 59.8 percent said HR evaluates training options and purchases training materials. A larger percentage of respondents (67.3 percent) reported that HR is in charge of scheduling training sessions.
For 60.4 percent of respondents, HR conducts the training sessions. When not actually conducting training, HR often is in charge of evaluating and hiring trainers or assisting supervisors on training tasks. The survey results show that 43.1 percent of the respondents evaluate and hire trainers and 74.8 percent assist supervisors.
HR also plays a large role in making decisions about training. The survey results show that 63.8 percent of the respondents report that HR management makes training decisions, while 63.6 percent say executive management makes the decisions. The survey showed 57.3 percent of the respondents reported that supervisors and managers make training decisions, while 35.0 percent said training and development staff make the decisions, followed by 7.3 percent reporting in-house counsel and 5.3 percent saying “other.”
Training topics and needs
Survey respondents were asked what professional development topics they cover in training for both employees and management. Leadership/management was the top choice for management training programs, with 78.9 percent of respondents reporting that topic. Mission and values (70.8 percent), problem employees (68.9 percent), ethics/integrity (68.6 percent), team building (64.1 percent), communication/presentation (63.7 percent), job-related skills (58.0 percent), and time management (50.7 percent) rounded out the topics for management.
The top training topic for non-management employees was job-related skills, with 84.4 percent of respondents reporting that topic, followed by mission and values (79.2 percent), ethics/integrity (65.9 percent), communication/presentation (54.9 percent), team building (52.6 percent), time management (45.4 percent), problem employees (25.4 percent), and leadership/management (24.3 percent).
When asked to identify their organization’s No. 1 training need, 19.9 percent said more time for training, 16.6 percent said cost-effective training, 11.7 percent said training needs analysis, 11.1 percent said training measurements/metrics, 11.0 percent said standardized training programs, 7.9 percent said an increased training budget, 6.5 percent said better training materials/tools, 6.3 percent said more training, 5.6 percent said “other,” and 3.5 percent said more training staff.
Training tools now and in the future
The survey also polled employers about the tools they use for training. In-person presentations conducted by the employer’s staff was the most common training option cited. The survey showed that 56.1 percent of respondents said they regularly use in-person sessions conducted by staff, 31.7 percent said staff-led sessions are sometimes used, 7.6 percent said rarely, and 2.7 percent said they never use that option.
More than a third of respondents (37.7 percent) reported that they regularly use printed materials for training, and nearly a quarter (24.9 percent) reported they regularly use online training providers. The survey showed that 20.6 percent of respondents regularly use in-person presentations by experts from outside the company, and 16.1 percent use video or DVD-based materials.
Outside conferences/seminars was the option regularly used by 15.8 percent of the respondents, and telephone/audio seminars were the regular choice for 11.7 percent of the survey respondents. Five percent reported using mobile/tablet-based materials regularly.
Employers also were asked what training tools they expect to use in the future. Online training was the choice of 80.6 percent of the respondents, followed by in-person presentations by HR staff (80.1 percent), outside conferences/training (64.2 percent), in-person training conducted by outside experts (61.1 percent), print materials (54.2 percent), video/DVD-based materials (49.6 percent), telephone/audio seminars (38.4 percent), mobile/tablet-based materials (31.9 percent), and “other” (3.5 percent).
Training budgets
The survey also asked respondents how they expect their training budgets to change next year. The results show that 22.2 percent expect increased budgets for compliance training, 35.3 percent expect increases for developmental training, 27.5 percent expect increases for technical/professional training, 12.3 percent expect increases for training infrastructure, and 19.0 percent expect increases for training staff (train the trainer).
Respondents were more likely to report that they expect training budgets to stay the same next year in the various categories: 54.7 percent expect the same budget for compliance training, 43.4 percent expect the same for developmental training, 50.7 percent for technical/professional training, 43.5 percent for infrastructure, and 44.5 percent for training staff.