Invest in Employee Training for Post-Recession Era

Businesses are being encouraged to continue training their employees in order to take advantage of the post-recession era.

Research by the Chartered Institute of Learning and Development (CIPD) revealed that the current economic climate was causing an increasing number of firms to reduce their training and development budgets.

The CIPD reported that approximately 40 per cent of organisations have either decreased the amount of money they are willing to spend on training their workforce this year or they plan on doing so.

More than half businesses have reported a decline in profits over the last year and this has resulted in a third of organisations using in-house training procedures instead of outsourcing to external suppliers.

It was also found that more companies are willing to train their staff compared to figures from 2010 which demonstrates that a growing number of businesses are planning for the economic recovery.

This dedication to training has seen the majority of firms using more cost effective development practices such as e-learning, while nearly half of organisations are using coaching by line managers and in-house development programmes.

Dr John McGurk, learning and talent development adviser at the CIPD, said it was important that businesses did not ignore training altogether as a means of cutting expenditure during tough economic times.

"It's encouraging to see that during the tough times organisations have coped well with reduced budgets and shifted from external to in-house provision, as well as utilising less costly development practices," he added.

Performance improvement consulting experts can help organisations investigate how to train their employees on a reduced budget.

Firms that continue to train their staff are likely to improve employee morale and productivity which will be extremely beneficial as the economy begins to recover fully from the recession.

Businesses which provide flexible working practices should always try to involve the whole of their workforce in their training and development programmes as this will promote greater employee inclusion.

Flexible workers can often feel isolated if they are not included in work events and ignoring them completely from training programmes may result in an 'us versus them' scenario which will damage morale and productivity.

Employees working away from the workplace can feel disadvantaged so providing them with the same growth opportunities as permanent office staff may entice them to develop within the company rather than seeking employment elsewhere.

Flexible workers are great for businesses who cannot afford to house a large workforce in expensive office blocks so employers should try to retain their services through the provision of training.


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