Just who buys employee training ?

It seems as if senior management (and I include HR management too) ignore the importance of employee training. I mean they pay lipservice to the concept - but they don't get down and dirty with what is really required.

And the first things to go in any cost reduction plan often include training.

The best corporations empower individuals to plan their own needs and some even devolve the training budget down to individuals. That means everyone can purchase some basic training every year - whether it is technical, business or personal skills.

Too many organizations, living in the twentieth-century or before(!), still hand the budget to a 'training manager' who may not, and probably does not, have any functional or operational knowledge of the business. Even worse, as training goes on-line, how can such managers evaluate whether specific eLearning content meets the needs of their people ? They should not be expected to do so - how can they possibly go to line managers and ask for people to be taken off jobs to 'evaluate training products or services' ?

One way forward is to take the focus off annual, corporate (or departmental) budgets. Things that are seen as purely a cost are usually not valued like things that are seen as 'strategic'. If bookkeepers are forever looking for the elusive 'return on investment' then the point has been lost.

So give everyone a few dollars/yen/euro/pounds (or whatever) and let them purchase what they think they need. It does not have to be a large sum of money - but it will make everyone aware the organization cares.