Is Training Primary or Secondary?

I had an interesting discussion with a colleague a couple of days. We were discussing why training budgets are always the first to get slashed by companies in a downturn. Has learning ever been secondary for any of us? If the answer is No, then why should training be secondary?

It is surprising to see the number of companies who have cut down on their training budgets. Even more surprising, you would assume that companies would focus more on achieving good quality training on their limited budgets. What we have seen is just the reverse. Companies are opting to do a few mandatory days of training in a year through some outsourced trainers. Obviously if that’s the way training is delivered, then training does not achieve any results. Which then leads the company to conclude that ‘training does not work’. A vicious circle!

We have been asking our clients to experiment with alternative methods that provide innovative learning platforms for employees. It is a great time to experiment with social media for corporate training, use blended and self-paced training material and other innovative, inexpensive techniques to train employees. For example, for one of our clients, just putting up some posters at different locations helped drive learning. For another client, we defined a set of simple activities for the sales staff to implement on the job. This ensured high retention and application of concepts. The key is to ‘Be brave to try something different and innovative to achieve more out of our limited training budgets’.