Training & Development

Most managers are a bundle of nerves who would prefer to be back in the ranks rather than leading their teams through the worst recession in a generation.

When times are tough, it's often the training budget that suffers first. But that's a big mistake, because organisations that invest in their employees in a downturn have a better chance of surviving.

Barely a quarter of new managers get the training they need to do their job properly - leaving organizations full of people with no confidence in their management abilities.

A recent study from UK insurance company, Norwich Union, suggests that a quarter of transport accidents could be avoided through proper training.

In this modern world focused on the self, is it any surprise that self-improvement courses would eventually hit the workplace?

It is widely acknowledged that effective training programs make it much easier for organisations to achieve their strategic goals. But strategically-aligned training is still missing from most companies.

As with any educational endeavor, workplace training is most effective when it engages learners in ways that appeal to them. So if using old, canned presentations have resulted in stale training, perhaps it's time to try a different brand of instruction.

Most American businesses don't understand the difference between management training and leadership development.

For the ambitious manager it's no longer who you know that is important. It's not even what you know. It's "can you prove it?" that counts, new British research has suggested.

To Taiwan, now, where it seems that a working knowledge of the English language may be your ticket to getting ahead.

Yes, it's that time of year again. The Unholy One has sent out his training schedule for the rest of this year and looks like another busy fall season.

Just a fifth of businesses measure whether their training and development delivers an effective return on investment, despite six out of 10 HR directors believing they could do so.

Let's be honest here. Organisations have little, if any, intrinsic interest in providing learning for their employees. So why are they suddenly trying to present themselves as advocates of learning and development?

To remain competitive, organizations need to learn faster than the competition. But knowing that and doing that are two different things – and far too many leaders seem to think that they don't need to learn anything more to succeed.

Getting promoted, especially into that first management job, can be a nightmare, one that is made all the worse by a lack of support and training. Which could be why so many people just don't want to be managers.

Investing in your workforce means more than just paying them well. It means equipping people with skills and enabling them with authority. Because without opportunities to learn and grow, people quickly become bored and disengaged.

Senior managers in many organisations appear to have an ambivalent attitude towards their own training and development needs as a new survey reveals that the most senior are the least likely to get training.

Senior managers want their HR teams to stop spending so much time on employee development and put more effort into improving how their workforce deals with and attracts customers.

Why do so many organisations appoint new managers, push them in the deepe end, give them no training and still expect them to to swim?

Corporate trainers are under growing pressure to minimise the time staff spend undergoing training "off the job", resulting in a decline in classroom training and a greater emphasis on e-learning.

More than half of workers believe that the U.S. is unprepared to compete in the global economy, feeling let down both by schools and colleges and by a lack of interest in training and development from big employers.

Despite the importance of an effective sales team to the bottom line, many companies in the U.S. are not adequately investing in the recruiting, hiring or training of this most vital of assets.

Two out of five American companies are burning cash as up to half of their training budgets disappear into a black hole labelled "administration costs".

China may be churning out graduates by the thousands, but serious questions are being raised about whether they have the skills to turn the nation into an economic world-beater.

The appetite for corporate learning in America is growing rapidly, with employers now spending on average more than a $1,000 a year on each employee.

Leadership training is the current corporate fad. Everybody says they're offering it, but most of it is hooey and it won't change a thing. So does all this lip service about leadership stem from corporate schizophrenia, hypocrisy, or just outright lies?

Everyone accepts it takes a bit of time to get your feet under the table, but a quarter of managers are disappointed at the length of time it takes recruits to adapt to their new corporate culture.

British bosses are undermining their own training programmes by being overly-fixated on creating leaders while proving reluctant to learn new skills themselves.

The cult of 'leadership' has hooked executives to such an extent that they almost always opt for 'leadership development' when asked what kind of training they would prefer, even though they seldom know what it is they are asking for.

More Britons are thinking about leaving their job than in any other major European economy, new research has revealed, with poor staff development and inadequate retention strategies largely to blame.

More Britons are thinking about leaving their job than in any other major European economy, new research has revealed, with poor staff development and inadequate retention strategies largely to blame.

The vast majority of big U.S companies now train workers across the world. Yet most of their training dollars remain focused on delivering education at home.

European workers are unlikely to see big increases in take-home pay next year but will be given more training and development opportunities instead.

Workers who complete an apprenticeship earn more money than their peers and are more likely to end up as managers, a British study has found.

U.S. competitiveness is under threat because its future workforce is ill-prepared and lacking in both basic academic aptitude and critical workplace skills, a new report has warned.

UK businesses are stuck in a time warp in terms of language and seem determined to remain monolingual when it comes to embracing European business opportunities.

The secret is out. Satan has his own training company and a more mercenary (and more successful) man than I would buy stock - because it's having a heck of a year.

What's the latest wonder-tool in the never-ending hunt for increased motivation and productivity? According to a story in today's Daily Telegraph, the answer is singing.

One in three British employers has to send workers for remedial training to teach them basic English and maths skills that they have failed to learn at school, employers have complained.

Universities have been warned that they need to do more to build links with local employers if they want to increase the workplace skills and employability of their graduates.

Indian IT companies are turning themselves into mini technology universities in an effort to overcome a severe shortage of talent, according to a report in the country's Economic Times.

In far too many organizations, Training has been mistaken for Learning, with pretty dire results. You can also do all kinds of training and have no learning take place whatsoever. So why do training at all?

Senior executives worldwide have blamed lack of effective HR and training support for their workforces lacking the skills they need to achieve market leadership, with even critical functions failing to perform as strongly as they should.

Higher energy costs and the bill for training and employing workers are putting British businesses under more pressure, yet most still feel more upbeat about their future prospects than they did six months ago.

A shortage of skilled staff is now the biggest barrier to business in London, overtaking transport problems for the first time, according to new research from the Confederation of British Industry.

British businesses and public sector organisations are wasting up to £75m a year on management and executive education programmes that are poorly conceived and delivered, according to a new report from Oxford University.

With fewer significant IT advances in the pipeline today, organisations are now turning their attention to making sure they get the best out of their existing technology. That means moving towards more organic and creative approach to training, management and support.

Pupils at Wellington College, an independent school in the UK, are to receive lessons in happiness.

Companies based in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly looking to develop home-grown executive talent rather than relying on expatriates brought in from other areas of the world.

When our shopping experience is negative, statistics show it takes only two such incidents and we're likely to shop elsewhere. That's not a lot of wiggle room. Think of it as "two strikes and you're out."

British managers are often confused about who should take responsibility for training and development, fail to develop proper succession planning procedures and rely on the corporate "grapevine" for communication.

Two Scottish hospitals have become the first organisations in the UK to use Podcasting to train new staff.

Two thirds of British businesses fail to back up organisational change with proper training and development support for their workers, vastly increasing the likelihood of long-term failure.

Getting promoted is a common goal, but perhaps the most difficult promotion is transitioning from line worker to front-line supervisor. Why? Because the skills that made one successful in the rank and file are not the skills one needs for success as a supervisor.

How many training courses or events have you been to? How often have you left feeling it was worthwhile and that you could put your new found skills to immediate and practical use?

Managers are getting the lions share of the training pie in British organisations, leaving those further down the ladder to compete amongst themselves for the little training budget that is left over.

The ability to stand up and talk does not a trainer make. And in the same way, just because we show someone how to do something doesn't mean they've learned.

Nearly half of Britain's workforce has a reading age little better than children leaving primary school, according to a damning report due to be published by MPs.

There is a clear link between the productivity and profitability of manufacturers who not only place a high priority on training but also relate their training plan to their strategic business goals.

It may be a welcome break from the daily grind, but according to one in three U.S workers, their most recent employer-provided training was a waste of time.