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 | | EMPLOYERS URGED TO REAP THE BUSINESS BENEFITS OF TRAINING | | | Improve | | 12/06/2008 | | | Food and drink employers firmly believe that training brings tangible benefits to their business – yet less than a fifth of enterprises in the sector have a formal training budget.
That’s according to new research carried out by the food and drink sector skills council, Improve, which assessed training activities within food and drink manufacturing and looked at the business benefits of up-skilling.
“More than 90 per cent of employers we questioned believed that training improved the quality of their products and services,” explained Paul Chapman, head of research and marketing at Improve. “More than four out of five employers also acknowledged that training improves productivity, staff retention and growth capability. Yet the evidence suggests that few employers are investing in training as part of their business strategy. Only 16 per cent have a formal training budget and, on average, just a third of employees have undergone more than five days training in the past year.”
As well as a telephone survey of almost 400 companies, the research, which was carried out by the University of Leicester’s Centre for Labour Market Studies, also included in-depth case studies of eight food and drink companies that are known to invest in skills – again with interesting results.
“All case studies demonstrated the importance of training in achieving the goals of the business’s strategic plan,” continued Mr Chapman. “The evidence suggests that the success of the company’s strategies has been largely down to the skills, commitment and capacity of the staff, which, in turn, has been achieved through systematic training and skills development.
“The case studies also clearly highlight the fact that training is not a quick-fix. It takes time for investment in training to take effect, and sustained benefits cannot be achieved by making a ‘one-off’ investment in skills.”
The report also incorporated an extensive literature review, to pull together existing research on the benefits of training that is relevant to the food and drink sector. “We found the huge amount of existing research fully supports the idea that training is crucial to a company’s success,” continued Mr Chapman. “For example, a report from 2006 found that between 1998 and 2004, more than 50 per cent of manufacturing establishments that provided no training closed down, compared to just 20 per cent of those enterprises that did provide training – suggesting a clear link between training and business survival.”
Jack Matthews, Improve’s chief executive, commented: “This research suggests that although employers now recognise the importance of training, a real shift in attitude is needed to ensure that companies get the most out of training, and use it as an effective tool to drive success. It seems clear that for a business to gain the most benefits, training must become embedded in its culture. Those that incorporate training within their business strategies have more success than those that only use training to fire fight when parts of the business start to fail.” | |
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