Who Invests in Training?

In an article entitled, Rethinking Employee Development (Human Resource Executive Online http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=90138057 )
Peter Cappelli suggests that employees be required to invest in their own training. This is an interesting discussion both for what it contains and what is missing. Cappelli’s time frame citing 25 years of decline in developmental T&D activity roughly coincides with the paradigm shift of the 1980s when employers violated the long standing compact with their workers. For decades prior to that time workers acted on a self-denial model which asserted that if you behaved appropriately and awaited your rewards as they were sequentially doled out, you could enjoy lifetime employment and an acceptable retirement. When the wave of “reorganizations,” “downsizings,” and “right-sizings” hit in the 1980s, workers were forced to reassess their relationship with their employers.

As early as 1983, Daniel Yankelovich presented some very interesting findings and conclusions in his book, New Rules: Searching for Self-Fulfillment in a World Turned Upside Down. Based on his survey of over 3000 workers in the U.S., he concluded that Americans had grown weary of demands for further sacrifices they believed were no longer warranted. Because they had no reason to believe in loyalty and commitment on the part of their employers, workers were demanding more control over their careers, their success, their opportunities for leisure, and their relationships.

Here is an interesting anomaly that I continually grapple with. Many C-suite executives are missing the point by viewing employee development as primarily an employee benefit and a business expense that is not recaptured. At the same time, these top executives identify some of their major business problems as retention and recruitment.

Going forward, the most successful companies will be those that survive or even win the “talent war.” To “win” in that context means convincing today’s increasingly independent and distrustful workforce that there is more value in the experience your company is providing than can be acquired elsewhere. To accomplish this requires a focus and a serious investment in the developmental needs of employees, on both the educational and human levels.