A current article on SHrM.org details the necessity for companies to invest in their employees and lists some worrying trends in financial industry.
The article notes that many banks and financial organizations who have been hit hard by the current economic recession are cutting corners by not investing in their current employees. When I use the word “investing,” I am specifically referring to employee training and development. As the economy begins to improve, employees will begin to feel restless and ready to emerge from this economic winter and spread their proverbial wings other organization;s that is, unless companies take the time and money to provide training opportunities so that they may develop their business acumen skill sets and transition into higher roles within the company.
Theresa Minton-Eversole, author of the article Retention’s Business Case for Banking Industry Training, Study Shows, states, “U.S. banks spend an average of just $650 per employee on training, while successful companies in other industries spend an average of $1,100 per employee, according to a recently released talent management study conducted by the American Bankers Association (ABA) and the Corporate Executive Board (CEB). A survey of more than 3,500 bank CEOs asked about their organization’s talent management practices revealed that while banks fill 60 percent of their openings from within, 40 percent of responding bank CEOs believe that they are not doing enough to help their employees grow. Respondents said they believe that this is hurting succession planning.” These are worrying statistics.
As an organizational leader and/or a Human Resources manager, it is important to balance the company’s need to develop its employees while also being mindful of financial cost; after all, we’re not totally out of the economic woods yet. This is where a tool like Learning @… can help: not only is it a robust online employee learning application that can deliver customized training and development modules, it is a cost-effective system that employees can access 24/7, over and over again—all it requires is a user name and password.
