Employee Development Still Informal in Most Companies

Despite the retirement of baby boomers and a predicted labor shortage, many companies have not formalized employee development training, which could help stem the loss of organizational knowledge.

Nearly 84% or two-thirds of human resource professionals do not use structured employee development programs. Instead, they rely on informal and generic training processes in their organizations, according to a survey released yesterday by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Catalyst, a research and advisory organization.

The survey showed that about half of the 248 HR professionals surveyed think their organizations effectively identify which employees need to improve competencies but lack structured training programs to help them achieve that. About 84% of HR professionals surveyed used generic training, in the areas of customer service and/or diversity.

Most professionals relied on these generic programs instead of formal learning programs like career mentoring, high-visibility assignments and succession planning, which focus on the individual, according to the survey.

By: Priya Ganapati

Full Story: http://www.inc.com/criticalnews/articles/200506/training.html