How to Justify the Cost of Employee Training and Establish Your Budget

According to the Statista Research Department, “larger companies in the U.S. have been increasing their investment in staff training over the last three years, with the average number of training hours provided annually per employee increasing from 42.2 in 2017 to 102.6 in 2020. This was the highest average of all business sizes in that year, with small companies providing an annual average of 41.7 hours and midsize companies 34.7 hours per employee.” These numbers consistently show that employee learning and development is continuing to be recognized for its importance.

That has not always been the case. A previous report from the U.S. Department of Labor showed that 70% of companies offered formal training to employees. That may seem like a strong number; however, think about the flip side of that - 30% of companies did not offer any training to employees. What if your surgeon or dentist worked within that percentage of staff members who had no access to training before going on the job? That is an eye-opening thought.

With the importance of employee training being established, it is time to address two of the biggest obstacles that hinder quality employee development programs to be implemented: buy-in and budgeting.

Buy-In

Buy-in is often hard to acquire when leadership does not understand the value of the training initiative. To obtain buy-in and support for your learning effort, research and planning need to take place that allows you to show the impact and results that will be seen from the new training investment.

Budgeting

Budgets can be tough to establish without some research as well. Some different formulas and calculations can help determine the right amount of funds to allocate towards learning and development. Besides, it is important to ensure effective budget management that can show benchmarks and KPIs.

Join Our Webinar

Luckily, there are helpful tools available to help you gain executive buy-in and establish a training budget. The Designing Digitally team wants to be one of them.

Our team invites you to join our upcoming webinar, which is back by popular demand, How to Justify the Cost of Employee Training and Establish Your Budget. In a few weeks, this event takes place on March 11, 2021, at 11 AM EST. You will learn ways to help obtain leadership support and justify training developments, as well as discuss tips for establishing and managing your L&D budgets. All registrants will be sent a recording of the event as well.

Don’t miss out! Save your spot today!

Please note our team updated this blog on 2/23/2021.