Approve or Not to Approve Employee’s Training

Why should I take a minute before approving my employees training?  I feel many companies spend enormous amounts of money each year on employee training, but have never measured the return on the investment. (ROI)  In other words, how does this training yield more profit and ensure company success?

I feel Managers approve their employee’s trainings for many reasons.  For example:  “I was given a training budget and I can use it as I please”.  OR “This is my star employee, they would not ask for it, unless it was truly needed”.    So we click the “Approve” button and tada our employee is now happy.  We have now increased our employee satisfaction survey ratings and we can also have it reflect on our Learning Management System training completion report.  Oh wait and now the employee has something to add to their performance evaluation at the end of the year. This is all good stuff, but again, how do we know this is making our company more successful?

I often feel, Managers can not answer this question.  I speak on personal experience.  In the past, one of my job responsibilities was to contact an employee’s Manager, 3 months after they took a course.  I would conduct a Level 3 training evaluation (Kirkpatrick's Evaluation).  My goal was to understand, how this training affected their employee performance.  I also wanted to know how they applied what they learned in class to their current position.  I also needed to understand was this training for a new product roll out or a change within their department that would affect the day to day operation?  Many times the answer I received was, “I have so many employees and I am not sure”.  The Manager would recommend contact the employee directly and get the answers.

Many of you reading this might say, that could be lack of management skills or time management;  nevertheless, the bottom line the Manager did not know.  They see the training in their Learning Management System and it is pending approval for an employee.  Their first impulse is to just approve the training course.

At the end of the day, training investment can be costly.  It is not only the course, but the time away from the office.   The next time your employee request training, stop and ask yourself a few questions:

1.       Why do they need this training?

2.       Is the training for a new product roll out?

3.       Is there a system/operational change and this is the reason the employee needs the training?

4.       Is a new skill set needed to do the job?

5.       How will I measure the ROI?

The next time an “Approval” is needed for training, ask yourself, “How will this affect the return on the investment to my organization.”   We might not own the company, but as Leaders we need to be more diligent when making decisions. 

Just my thoughts ~Kimberly