First IPD national training survey

Citation

(1999), "First IPD national training survey", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 20 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.1999.02220eab.002

First IPD national training survey

First IPD national training survey

Keywords: Training, Training costs, Organization development, Competitiveness, United Kingdom

The Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD) has recently published the results of its first national training survey. The first of an annual survey of training managers shows that 95 per cent expect spending on training to remain stable or increase over the course of the next year. Given that training budgets are often the first to be slashed during a downturn this offers encouragement to the Government that Treasury predictions of a soft landing for the economy will be met.

The IPD survey also revealed that employers significantly underestimate how much they are spending on the training and development of their staff. Nearly a quarter of establishments did not have training budgets. Nearly 40 per cent have budgets which exclude fixed costs. Nearly one-third have budgets which only cover the costs of external courses and a mere 4 per cent have budgets which cover the cost of training technology and other support materials. Salaries of trainers and trainees are almost universally excluded, as are the costs of on-the-job training - the most extensively used form of training.

The IPD survey of 800 UK training managers highlighted a number of important developments. Most organizations now establish links between their strategic business objectives and training. The main strategic reasons for investing in training were given as follows:

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  organizational development (89 per cent);

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  increasing returns on investment (77 per cent);

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  improving market share and increasing the levels of product innovation (66 per cent).

On-the-job training is the most significant and important training method with 96 per cent of organizations using it. Training is seen by most as enhancing the commitment of employees to their employers - an important argument for smaller employers worried that if they train staff they will lose them more quickly to competitors.

Seventy per cent of respondents anticipate a shift in training methods towards use of the Internet and intranets even though new technology methods are still viewed with suspicion, with relatively low effectiveness scores, probably because of lack of experience in using these new forms of training.

Sixty per cent of respondents expected CD-ROM usage and other forms of computer-based training to grow. However, traditional methods such as face-to-face and classroom tuition are also expected to grow. On-the-job training was the most highly rated form of training with coaching and mentoring also achieving almost equally high ratings.

Note: Training and Development in Britain 1999: The First IPD Annual Report is the result of work undertaken by David Ashton, Johnny Sung and Marcus Powell of Leicester University. A summary of the research findings is available from the Press Office and the full report will be published later this year. Subsequent annual surveys will enable year-on-year comparisons to be made and trends to be identified (+44 (0) 181 263 3232).