The perils of online training and why vision matters

Online training

The purpose of any training program - online or offline - should be profit. When a company talks about skills development through training, the company ideally wants that an employee uses the concepts and practical aspects covered in the training at work.

However, the executives interviewed (as mentioned in this report) have a different story to tell.

Exponential Advisory interviewed 50 executives across industries such as retail, banking and

finance, IT, consulting, healthcare, automotive, technology, education, research, NGOs, oil and gas, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles, tourism, media and entertainment, FMCG, and

government organizations.

Survey time period - 3 months.

The questions focused around the types of online training conducted, the interests of the

employees, budget, training policy, mandatory government training, time investment, and the ROI on such programs.

The findings from the employees’ perspective and the HR perspective, and the next steps

suggested by them are as follows:

Employees’ perspective

• Training is just an activity and outing for us. 

• We are supposed to complete mandatory hours.

• The HR forces us to complete online training; however, our supervisors do not release us to complete the training. As this is online, absolutely no importance is given by our supervisors. 

• We answer the end-of-training questions with the help of ChatGPT or Google. Who will come to know? As it is, this is of no use.

• Wonder why such trainings are conducted. I find such trainings of no use. 

• This is a waste of money for the company and also our time. 

• As it is online, we get no resources to use the training. 

• Earlier, at least for offline training, it was a party for us. Now, no party nor any learning. All the money is in the drain. 

• Training must give us joy and make us feel that my knowledge and skills have increased. However, seldom is the case. 

Examples of employees’ feedback

• Example 1: Our company did an online yoga training. What next? They do not give us any facility to practice, neither do they give us any time to practice. We eventually forget about it in our day-to-day work. 

• Example 2: The HR told us to complete Excel training, but I do not use Excel for our work. It is unnecessary enforcement. 

• Example 3: Out of the 24 online training programs that our company has in the calendar, it is compulsory to complete 6 training programs. 6 is such a huge number. It is difficult to select. Also, no quality time is given to us to study the programs and then choose. So everything is haphazard and random.

• Example 4: Companies talk big about employee satisfaction. Do they really care? Unnecessary enforcement of the online training adds no value.

HR perspective

• As per our company policy, employees need to complete certain training; our company prefers online. We do not take employees’ feedback or conduct surveys.

• Making a training calendar is a part of my JD, so we run helter-skelter to identify trainers.

• Companies do not give enough budget for quality programs.

• The management enforces us to enforce online training on employees, and we become the scapegoat. Employees need to understand that HR is just an executor. The top management decides all the online training programs. 

• Due to politics, we are forced to hire vendors that we know will not deliver.

• There is no skin in the game as we do not calculate the ROI on online training. So all these trainings are considered a cost rather than an investment. 

• HR is aware that employees use all the tactics to manipulate their completion of the training; it is a taboo to speak about it.

• The majority of HR are MBA HR or some psychology graduates; they absolutely lack skills. This needs to change. Hiring from premium schools does not help as the ground reality is different. It becomes difficult to compete with the other functional departments. 

• We need data. Not just the hygiene-related data, but the application and ROI data. 

• HR does not want to be a whistleblower here.

• HR lacks the knowledge and skills to have quality training programs that contribute to the bottom line - revenue, productivity, efficiency, time value of money, customer retention, and mainly profits.

Next and ideal steps:

• The action is missing. We need a solid framework and systems that make HR and employees answerable for every penny invested in them for training. 

• Need SOPs for training. 

• Rather than online training, even a half-day training is crucial. As employees get some breather to attend the training and also ask questions to the facilitator and get more clarity. 

• Training must be linked to appraisal for all employees. This does not mean just attending the training and giving feedback on training or doing a test at the end of the training. But give the employees enough resources, time, space, and an environment of learning and applying what is learnt. 

• A training department ‘Vision’ as to why a training department exists in the first place. Answering questions such as Why are we doing, what are we doing, and how will we be doing? With measurable systems that provide us with the data. 

• A robust system that helps us use and show the ROI on what employees learnt. 

• If all the investment in online training is channelled with a vision and system in place, a system that adds value to the employees where their productivity is measured on account of the training, it would be fun. 

Case example:

• Type of training: online management program or a yoga program or any other online training. 

• Investment in the training vendor - ₹ 5,00,000

• Budget per employee - ₹. 10000/-

• Total employees to be covered - 200

• Investment in the online training - ₹ 10,000 X 200 = ₹ 20,00,000 

• Final investment of the training = Rs. 20,00,000 + Rs. 5,00,000 = ₹ 25,00,000

  
  

The above does not include time value of money, opportunity costs, employees’ salary, and other related costs which ideally should be included.