In my reading, I ran across a great quote that really got me to thinking about training and its costs/benefits.  The article was by a workshop facilitator who said something that I had heard before but was glad to be reminded of again.  Her statement was, “What if you train them and they leave?  What if you don’t and they stay?” 

I’ve heard some corporations say that they don’t train people because they will just leave and use that knowledge to help a competitor.  I think the above quote is a very good argument against that type of thinking.  Training can be a large expense for a corporation.  From my experience, it is definitely worth the cost.  In my own life, I can see the time savings after learning how to do something better or faster after participating in a training class.

Outside of my own experiences as a trainee, I’ve seen it happen many, many times as a trainer, too. Once when I was teaching a Versitas Advanced Excel class at a corporation, I showed the students how to setup and run a macro.  I heard a gasp come from one woman after we had gone through these steps.  I immediately went over and asked her if everything was okay.  She said she was about to cry because she was so happy.  That made my day! 

She went on to tell me that she had to format a report that was downloaded from a database 2-3 times every week.  She would spend at least 2 hours each time formatting the report (deleting columns, adjusting numbers to a custom style, etc.).  If she set up a macro to do those steps for her, it would save her about 4-6 hours each week!! 

I thought about how much those 4-6 hours each week could save the corporation she worked for over the period of a year.  If she made $25 an hour (I’m guessing here since I don’t know her salary) times 4 hours each week times 50 weeks, that would be $5,000 in savings!  The training class for the whole group of 10 people would not have cost that much.  So, for one person alone, that training class paid for itself to the corporation in terms of its bottom line.  Not to mention how much time the other participants in the class were able to save the company with the new skills they learned.

But, there’s more.  The lady came back for the afternoon part of the training class. She had been so excited that she had shown her co-workers how to do the macro during lunch. The other co-workers did the same report she did each week. She had told her supervisor about it, too.  She was happy because she could now spend more time each week following up with vendors, which she had not had time to do in the past.

In the training industry it is sometimes hard to quantify or put an amount on how much training contributes to the bottom line for a corporation.  This example, though, made me realize that corporations cannot afford not to train.  Not only does training save employees time (which saves the corporation money), it makes for a happier, more loyal workforce.

Tags: bottom line, costs/benefits, Excel, happier workforce, macro, more loyal workforce, training, training class, training industry, Versitas

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