Criticisms are often leveled at businesses around the issue of training, that not enough companies invest in their staff via education and training programs. But what happens if your investment in training walks out the door?
For a small business, it can mean the entire year's training budget has been wasted. This was what happened to one small firm when Bonnie quit, three weeks after completing a training program. The objective of sending Bonnie on the course had been to provide her with skills she needed to do her current job. In discussions with her manager, it had been agreed that certain aspects of the job were not familiar enough to her and in order for her to perform well, a course would be a good idea.
At the time, the firm was making less than $250,000 a year and, after paying salaries for five staff people, overheads for offices, equipment and the like, insurance and benefits, and whatnot, there wasn't a substantial amount of money left over for things like training. This is why in many companies - as 95% of businesses in America have five or fewer employees, most companies are considered small - there is no training budget.
Bonnie's employer considered that, if she quit three weeks after taking the course, she was probably more or less decided before she agreed to go on training that she wasn't going to be sticking around. The company therefore decided to implement a policy around course-taking. In the future, the business owner decided they would not get burned by employee behaviors such as Bonnie's. The policy, which management could choose to waive if they wanted, allowed that if a staff member quit within three months of taking a course valued at $200 or less, the departing employee would have to reimburse the company for the training. The greater the cost of the course, the longer the reimbursement period. So if an employee accepted going on an out-of-town course costing $2,000 more, the company could ask for reimbursement up to 2 years later for a voluntary departure.
(Issues like this and more are covered in my book, Other People's Problems: Why You Need To Go On Interviewing Your Employees - After You Hire Them! http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/other_peoples_problems/9268001
Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer
