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How to Avoid Five Common Problems Concerning Corporate Training

Written by: Bill Tamminga

Article Overview: A main consideration for hiring decisions is the urgency to fill a vacant seat. This common problem forces managers and owners of companies large and small to bring aboard employees who may lack the competence to thrive on day one. Yet even though this phenomenon has been occurring for years, businesses still lack quality training programs that will help employees make a difference to the bottom line. There are several reasons for this and I will list five of them here with recommendations for how to avoid them.

How to Avoid Five Common Problems Concerning Corporate Training

A main consideration for hiring decisions is the urgency to fill a vacant seat. This common problem forces managers and owners of companies large and small to bring aboard employees who may lack the competence to thrive on day one. Yet even though this phenomenon has been occurring for years, businesses still lack quality training programs that will help employees make a difference to the bottom line. There are several reasons for this and I will list five of them here with recommendations for how to avoid them.

1) Businesses make the assumption that colleges and universities exist to train students how to contribute to the business community. Take a look at the following mission statement from one of the leading educational institutions in the history of our country, Harvard University: "Harvard strives to create knowledge, to open the minds of students to that knowledge and to enable students to take best advantage of their educational opportunities... (to build) self-reliance and habits of lifelong learning" (see http://www.harvard.edu/siteguide/faqs/faq110.php for the full mission statement). There is much to be said for everything that Harvard stands for. It is an incredible institution. However, there is nothing in the mission statement that leads me to believe Harvard is trying to teach students how to be productive employees or business leaders. If you study the mission statements of Universities throughout America you will see the same thing. No college exists to train employees. They exist to teach students to think freely, exchange ideas, and reflect. Companies miss the point when they expect otherwise.

2) There is a disconnect between management and employees when it comes to training. James O'Toole, Edward Lawler, III, and Susan Meisinge wrote a compelling book entitled The New American Workplace in which they explain that there has been a significant decline in the amount of money spent on corporate training since the early 2000's and 71% of employees feel that management does not care about developing employee skills.

3) Within the companies that offer training, most do not provide the necessary quality or quantity of it. Even more baffling is the fact that when companies do offer training or provide incentives to take applicable business courses, only 18% of employees take advantage of it.

4) The practice of stealing trained employees discourages companies to offer in-depth training. Employee raiding has been going on for years and there is very little recourse for businesses who have spent thousands of dollars developing the organizational talent level. This trend has discouraged employers to sink money into employees who may not be as loyal as desired.

5) Too often, companies look to outside experts to train employees rather than starting an internal training department or expecting tenured workers to conduct sessions. Internal training programs developed by a company's staff members can be an effective way to both train new employees and develop the leadership talents of tenured workers.


With the exception of corporate raiding, avoiding these problems is relatively easy. First, understand that regardless of job candidates' educational pedigree, individuals generally come out of college unprepared to contribute to your bottom line without a significant amount of in-house training. Second, businesses can distinguish themselves from the competition by simply offering a training program and encouraging employees to participate in it. Third, since a vast majority of employees will not elect to develop themselves, some training programs must be mandatory. Finally, expect your tenured employees to create training materials as a way to develop their talent and expose new-hires to your culture, expectations, and processes.

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Article Tags: american workplace, amount of money, business community, business leaders, colleges and universities, competence, educational institutions, educational opportunities, edward lawler, exchange ideas, harvard university, lifelong learning, mission statement, mission statements, o toole, productive employees, quality training, self reliance, university harvard, vacant seat



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