Training is a mess

July 20, 2026

Hats off to the notion of improving capability. Being in semi retirement and now having the time to reflect on my 40 plus year career in HR and ER I now recognise my greatest success has been the implementation of training programs in substantial businesses. At one company the development of a proper training program resulted not only in millions of dollars in profits by the reduction of Non Conforming Product and reduction in delivery times, but a complete change in Employer/Employee relationships. In some instances basic literacy was given to many employees who previously were not able to read or write and as a consequence were doomed to working at the lowest levels of organisations. This resulted in a change in relationships where managers would ask employees for their ideas on productivity improvement and were rewarded handsomely, in turn employees were being respected, the change in tone was palpable.

Employees received substantial wage increases and felt they knew what they were doing.

The company was bought out by a multi national who thought training was an optional extra and removed it. Now the same business is floundering.

To improve capability we need to go back and fix the broken training system.