Companies invest in leadership, supervisory training

This year, spending for supervisory, leadership, and diversity training, will increase according to an annual survey of more than 2,500 senior HR executives by Equation Research.

The 2008 Corporate Learning Factbook published by Bersin & Associates reveals the same trend: leadership development and management/supervisory training are getting more dollars than other areas (21 percent of training dollars in this study).

“Corporations are investing heavily in current and up-and-coming leaders,” said President Josh Bersin. “We see an emphasis in this area across all sectors. Looming retirements, gaps in management talent and economic pressures are causing companies to funnel dollars into their leadership pipelines.”

Bersin & Associates 2008 Corporate Learning Factbook analyzes a wide range of metrics. Among its findings:

• E-learning has grown dramatically. This growth is driven largely by an increase in online training among small organizations (100-999 employees), which are acquiring the skills and technology to make online training a reality.
• While management/supervisory training and leadership development is a top priority overall, specific industry trends emerged. In telecommunications, 23 percent of training program dollars is spent on customer service training; technology companies invest 29 percent of training dollars on sales training; and pharmaceuticals spend 25 percent on compliance and other mandatory training.