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Best Practices in Preparing Your Workforce For Success: Training and Development
Best Practices in Preparing Your Workforce For Success: Training and Development
DEVELOPMENT:
Best Practices in Preparing
Your Workforce for Success
November 2015
SUMMARY
Our HRDA surveys are designed by our in-house team of HR experts. Once survey questions and distractors are
determined and tested, the survey is ported to the SurveyMonkey platform. Our survey population base is the
200,000 or so customers of our parent company BLR®. Customers are notified of the survey through e-mails. They
click a link to take them to the survey.
Surveys typically stay open for 3 weeks, although data show that most responses are received within a few days
of the announcement of the availability of the survey. Surveys may stay open longer than 3 weeks for further data
collection.
Analysis is usually straightforward, reporting on responses and percentages of response. We strive to present data
in clear, easy-to-understand charts and tables.
With open-ended questions, we mention the most frequently encountered entries, using our judgment as to which
responses may be grouped together.
We believe that the data we present are relatively easy to interpret; however, readers should always keep in mind
that old saw about lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Executive Summary................................................................................................. 7
National Data......................................................................................................... 11
HR’s Role in Training...........................................................................................................11
Training Decision Makers...................................................................................................12
How Long Are Training Sessions?......................................................................................13
The Media Used for Training..............................................................................................14
What Will Be Used in the Future?......................................................................................15
Various Training Budgets for 2016.....................................................................................16
Measuring Training Effectiveness......................................................................................17
Formalized Mentoring Programs.......................................................................................18
Onboarding New Employees.............................................................................................19
Training High Potential (HiPo) Employees.........................................................................20
Professional Development Topics.....................................................................................21
Who’s Trained in What?......................................................................................................22
The Most Needed Topics....................................................................................................23
Do Incoming Employees Need More or Less Training?....................................................24
Full-Time Trainers...............................................................................................................25
Learning Management Systems (LMS)..............................................................................26
How Are Training Services Evaluated?..............................................................................27
The #1 Training Need..........................................................................................................28
The #1 Complaint...............................................................................................................29
Respondent-Recommended Training Resources..............................................................30
Survey Methodology.............................................................................................. 31
HR Daily Advisor Research is published by BLR, 100 Winners Circle, Suite 300, Brentwood TN 37207.
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About BLR MEDIA Research Reports
About HRDA’s Research Program
Six times a year, the HR Daily Advisor Research Team The Summary (Freemium) Report and the Premi-
conducts detailed research into pressing, contemporary um Report
HR challenges to highlight best practices and common The Summary, or “Freemium,” Report of the Training
policies and procedures. We access our exclusive da- and Development Survey is available at no cost in dig-
tabase of more than 250,000 active HR practitioners to ital form to all interested parties. The summary report
find out how HR managers are handling challenges in contains all the national data for the items in the main
the real world. survey.
We maintain strict rules of confidentiality, and survey The Premium Report is available for download (or, at
data are reported only in the aggregate. a slightly higher price, in print). The Premium Report
contains all the data in the Summary Report, plus the
HR Daily Advisor Research Reports are based on surveys data from the main survey broken out by organization
we conduct to discover the “real-world” status of poli- size, organization type, HR department size, and geo-
cies and practices in areas of interest to HR managers. graphical region.
The topics for 2015 are:
To purchase a downloadable or print version of the Pre-
mium Report (available in December 2015), visit store.
Recruiting innovations. blr.com or call 800-727-5257.
Recruiting is changing at a rapid pace. Some organiza-
tions are abandoning traditional methods for social me-
dia; some think software can do a better job than people.
Technology takeover.
No question that technology is taking over many HR
tasks. How many is too many?
Employment branding.
How important (and how easy) is it to develop a distinct
employment brand? (I want to work in your company!)
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Demographics
Executive Summary
Training and Development
The HR Daily Advisor Research Team conducted the Only 36.7% of respondents indicate their organiza-
Training and Development Survey in April 2015. Em- tion has a staff for whom training is a full time job.
ployees are valuing career development more than Cost is a big concern among participants—87.8% of
ever—it’s a sign that the company is willing to invest those polled consider cost when evaluating training
in their future. How are businesses approaching train- products or services.
ing today? What are their pain points, and what topics One-fifth of our respondents indicate that their orga-
are being addressed in training? Are certain resources nization’s number one training need is more time for
recommended? Here are some introductory participant training, and 8% say that their number one need is
data along with some highlights from our study. an increased training budget.
For 16.1% of respondents, the number one complaint
regarding training is a limited budget, and 10.6%
Highlights of the Training and Development of those surveyed cite having no program as their
Survey: biggest training issue.
BLR® is a “recommended” source/vendor for train-
HR management is involved in training decisions for ing for 43.8% of respondents, and is “highly recom-
63.8% of respondents—slightly edging out executive mended” by 12.7%.
management (which is involved in training decisions
for 63.6% of the response pool).
The most popular method of training for the future is Who Responded?
online training, with 80.6% of participants indicating A total of 976 participants responded to the Training
they expect to use this method in the coming years. and Development Survey, representing a diverse array
Only 35.1% of respondents indicate that their orga- of industries, business types, organizational sizes, and
nization provides a formal training program for high locations. Respondents hailed from all across the United
potential (HiPo) employees. States and also around the world. The largest share of re-
17.5% of our participants say incoming employees spondents work in the Southern United States (22.7%),
who are college educated with technical training followed closely by the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic U.S.
require more training than their counterparts of prior (22.1%). 21.5% of participants responded from the East
years. Central U.S., 16.1% work at International companies,
A majority of participants (51.7%) work for an orga- and 9.9% are based in the Far West United States. Fi-
nization that does not utilize a learning management nally, 7.7% of survey participants work in the Central/
system (LMS). Rocky Mountain/Southwest U.S. region.
7.7%
16.1%
US:
Central/Rocky
Mountain/Southwest
US:
South
9.9%
Interna7onal
22.1%
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Executive Summary
11.7%
54.0%
19.6%
Private,
for-‐profit
Private,
not-‐for-‐profit
Public
corporaBon
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At 55.7%, managers made up the majority of the re-
spondent pool. Approximately one-fifth of participants
(20.5%) identified themselves as VP level or higher, and
staff-level employees made up 16.7% of those surveyed.
The smallest group represented (at 7%) was comprised
of supervisors.
7.0%
Staff
Supervisor
Manager
VP
or
higher
55.7%
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National Data
The following are the results of our Training and De- HR schedules training sessions for 67.3% of participants,
velopment Survey. Be mindful of the axes (the X axis and conducts them for 60.4%. An equal number of par-
for bar graphs and the Y axis for column graphs)—the ticipants indicated that HR’s role includes decidings
chart does not necessarily top out at 100%. Data are ex- what training is needed and evaluating and purchasing
pressed as percentages rounded off to the nearest tenth training options. Among the 13.1% of participants who
of a percent. selected “Other,” some specific responses included:
11
National Data
“EHS Manager.”
“IT.”
“Corporate Office.”
“Employees.”
“We have NO training department.”
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How Long Are Training Sessions?
The most common length for training sessions among
our participants was 60 minutes—35.4% of respondents
selected this option. This was followed by all-day train-
ing, which is typical for 22.4% of participants. 12.9% of
our response pool selected “Other,” with a great many
of them indicating that the training length varies de-
pending on the topic or type of training.
13
National Data
14
What Will Be Used in the Future?
In-person presentations are a mainstay for those
polled—80% of respondents expect to continue using
them in the future for training. However, participants
also believe that online training is the wave of the fu-
ture, since 80.6% of them expect their organization to
use this in the coming years. Other popular respons-
es were “Outside conferences/training” (64.3%) and
“In-person presentation by experts from outside the
company” (61.2%).
15
National Data
How will training budgets for the following change next year (2016)?
Answer Options Don't know Will decline Stay the same Increase Response
Count
Compliance training 19.9% 2.8% 55.1% 22.3% 835
Developmental training 16.4% 4.1% 43.8% 35.7% 831
Technical/professional training 16.1% 4.1% 51.6% 28.2% 824
Infrastructure (e.g., LMS) 34.0% 6.9% 46.1% 13.0% 794
Training Staff (train the trainer) 25.6% 6.4% 47.7% 20.3% 782
Answered question 840
Skpped question 136
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Measuring Training Effectiveness
Participants use a variety of metrics to assess the effec-
tiveness of training at their organization, with supervi-
sor or management input being the most popular (67.9%
use this metric). Other favored metrics included eval-
uation of employee performance after training (63.7%
measure this), trainee evaluations of trainer (56.8% use
this), and testing of trainees on content presented (mea-
sured by 45.8%). 4.7% of respondents selected “Other,”
and the common theme among these responses was
that there wasn’t enough measurement of training ef-
fectiveness at their organizations—or there wasn’t any
measurement at all!
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National Data
18
Onboarding New Employees
Fortunately, most of our survey takers’ organizations do
have a formal onboarding program for new employees.
Just over three-quarters (75.9%) of participants indicat-
ed that their company has such a program.
19
National Data
20
Professional Development Topics
When it comes to professional development, certain
topics are more likely to be addressed with manage-
ment than employees and vice versa. For example,
leadership/management training is provided to man-
agement by 95.6% of respondents, but only 29.7% pro-
vide the same type of training to employees. However,
job-related skills training is provided to employees by
95.3% of participants (but only 65.6% of those surveyed
cover this topic with management). However, ethics/
integrity training appears to be a priority for both em-
ployees and management among our respondents.
21
National Data
Who’s Trained in What? For exempt employees, respectful workplace was the
Across topics listed in our survey, training is a high pri- topic most likely to be covered (87.5%). Only 42%
ority for most respondents. Overall, our results indicate of respondents indicated that FLSA training was of-
that supervisors and managers tend to receive the most fered to exempt employees, making it the least likely
training at our participants’ organizations, while exec- training topic covered for this group.
utives and exempt employees are less likely to receive Supervisors/managers clearly are the most trained
training in certain areas. Here are some brief findings: across topics. The topic most covered was sexual
harassment (94.4%), and 60% of respondents (the
Nonexempt employees were most likely to be smallest group) selected “none of the above”—fur-
trained in safety/hazardous materials (92.9% of ther evidence that training is a high priority for this
participants provide this training) and least likely to employee type.
receive training regarding the Fair Labor Standards As a group, executives were most likely to receive
Act (FLSA)—only 39.7% offer this type of instruction training regarding sexual harassment (82.1%), and
for nonexempt employees. least likely to be trained in attendance (46.2%).
Which of the following topics are covered in your training for each employee group? (Check all that apply.)
22
The Most Needed Topics
19.1% of respondents felt that leadership and supervi-
sor skills was the most needed training topic at their
organization, and this was the most prevalent answer
among those polled. This was followed by engage-
ment/motivation (12.4%) and communication skills
(11.6%). 3.8% of participants selected “Other,” specify-
ing, among other topics:
23
National Data
Do current incoming employees for the following groups require more or less training than their counterparts of prior years?
Not college educated, technical training 8.3% 27.7% 56.5% 5.8% 1.6% 672
Not college educated, nontechnical training 12.8% 29.0% 52.6% 3.5% 2.1% 662
answered question 707
skipped question 269
24
Full-Time Trainers
According to our response pool, organizations are not
likely to have staff for whom training is a full time job.
62.4% of participants indicated that their organization
does not have this type of specialized, dedicated staff
when it comes to training and development.
25
National Data
26
How Are Training Services Evaluated?
The factor our respondents are most likely to consid-
er when evaluating training products or services is
cost—87.8% said they consider this variable. This was
followed by the quality of the material (a factor con-
sidered by 78.5% of participants), adaptability to their
needs (considered by 76.3%), and the time required for
the training (a concern for 74.7% of respondents). On
our list of various factors, the one of least concern to
our participants (selected by only 16.3%) was the abili-
ty to deploy the product/service on mobile devices or
tablets.
27
National Data
28
The #1 Complaint
The greatest share of our response pool (16.1%) said
that a limited budget is their number one complaint re-
garding their organization’s training program. This was
followed by not having enough time for training (13.3%
chose this as their number one complaint) and not hav-
ing a formal training program (the top complaint for
10.6%). Participants were least concerned with training
not being applicable to the job (only 0.8% selected this
as their primary complaint). Some “other” number one
complaints listed by our respondents included:
29
Executive Summary
Based on your experience with them, please rate the following training resources?
30
Survey Methodology
Our HRDA surveys are designed by our in-house team of HR experts. Once survey questions and distractors are
determined and tested, the survey is ported to the SurveyMonkey platform. Our survey population base is the
200,000 or so customers of our parent company BLR®. Customers are notified of the survey through e-mails. They
click a link to take them to the survey.
Surveys typically stay open for 3 weeks, although data show that most responses are received within a few days
of the announcement of the availability of the survey. Surveys may stay open longer than 3 weeks for further data
collection.
Analysis is usually straightforward, reporting on responses and percentages of response. We strive to present data
in clear, easy-to-understand charts and tables.
With open-ended questions, we mention the most frequently encountered entries, using our judgment as to which
responses may be grouped together.
We believe that the data we present are relatively easy to interpret; however, readers should always keep in mind
that old saw about lies, damned lies, and statistics.
SUMMARY