Staff training ‘costs’

Tom Breur

30 June 2013

Management’s objective is to, well, manage. Training costs are one of the resources that managers at pretty much every layer of the organisation can manage at their discretion. To begin with, isn’t it interesting these are referred to as training “costs”, rather than “investments” in companies’ most precious ‘resources’, their personnel?

The term “training costs” suggests the company begrudgingly furnishes these expenses in order to retain their employees. To add insult to injury, one of management’s fears sometimes is that their best employees might leave if they receive ‘too much’ training, as obviously their employability will go up.

‘Managing’ training costs in this manner is like putting the cart before the horse. Imagine the cost if you train your staff, and they leave? But doesn’t anybody worry about what happens if you don’t train them, and they stay??