Why staff training often fails

Almost four in 10 companies feel their line managers are ineffective at supporting employees' learning and development needs, despite 74% saying such people have taken on more responsibility for training in the past two years.

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which conducted the research, companies acknowledge the vital role line managers have to play in training but are failing to turn the theory into reality. This is because of a lack of training for line managers themselves, competing business pressures and a need to align learning and development practices with wider organisational strategy, the body suggests.

'As the UK‘s economy becomes increasingly service-led, organisations cannot afford to be complacent about addressing their employees‘ learning and development needs,' warned Victoria Winkler, learning and development adviser at the CIPD. 'Learning and development activities are vital to ensure that the workforce is kept up-to-date with fast-changing skills demands.

'Our research shows that line mangers are critical to facilitating learning and development activities, however many do not take learning and development seriously,' she said. 'To ensure that learning and development is effective, organisations need 'buy-in‘ from all employees, regardless of level. Line managers are key to delivering this and need to be supported in meeting their employees‘ needs.

'In addition, learning and development professionals need to make sure key decision-makers within the organisation understand the importance of learning and development and the contribution it can make to business,' added Winkler. 'Only when it is successfully integrated into the wider organisational strategy can it add real value.'

The research also illustrated that while 90% of organisations believe that line managers are important or very important in supporting learning and development decisions, only 12% feel their line managers take this responsibility very seriously.

Almost three-quarters (73%) of those polled expected the use of coaching by line managers to improve over the next few years, the poll added, with the most popular type of training on-the-job programmes and formal courses.