What is Wrong With Corporate Training: 5 Actions That Work

What is Wrong with Corporate Training Today?
Last year U.S. companies collectively spent $98?billion on employee training and development.  With that kind of investment, corporate training is meant to empower employees, boost performance, and create measurable business impact. Yet countless organizations invest millions in training programs that fail to deliver measurable or lasting results. Research shows that nearly 70% of corporate learning initiatives do not achieve their intended business outcomes. The problem isn’t the people — it’s the way training is designed, implemented, and measured.

Breaking the Cycle: What is Wrong With Corporate Training and How to Make it Payoff

Project postmortem data reveals a recurring issue: many instructional designers and training practitioners lack a clear, strategic approach to learning initiatives. Too often, their training strategy fails to thoroughly define critical elements, including:

• The business problem the training is intended to solve.

• What success looks like for participants, their managers, and the organization overall.

• Why training is the appropriate solution to achieve the desired outcomes.

• Organizational requirements needed to ensure new skills and behaviors are consistently applied on the job.

• A rollout strategy that integrates learning into the flow of work to drive tangible results.

Without clarity in these areas, even well-designed programs struggle to deliver measurable business impact.

Five Proven Steps to Improve Corporate Training
If you are in charge of learning and development at your company and understand what is wrong with corporate training today, you had better be sure that you:

1. Clearly Define Business Objectives
   Just as you would create a business case for organizational change, start by pinpointing the specific business outcomes the training is intended to achieve — and why they matter. Focus on results that drive tangible impact, such as revenue growth, profitability, productivity, and employee retention. Keep in mind that these business objectives are distinct from learning objectives, which center on skill and knowledge acquisition.
2. Identify the Skills and Competencies that Matter Most
   Organizations cannot afford to train employees indiscriminately. Every learning investment should focus on the skills and competencies that drive measurable results. Generic curricula does not help to move business-critical priorities forward.

   Once you know that upskilling makes sense to help get you where you want to go, identify the critical few skills and competencies employees must master to consistently achieve the desired results — ensuring they align with and reinforce your organization’s unique culture.

3. Assess Key Skill Gaps
   Conduct a thorough training needs assessment to pinpoint who requires the critical skills you’ve identified. For instance, if your goal is to strengthen leadership capabilities, leverage tools such as leadership simulation assessments and people manager assessment centers to accurately identify gaps and target development efforts where they will have the greatest impact.  Or use proven sales rep simulation assessments to help identify sales capability gaps.

   Done right, you should get a clear picture of individual and learning aptitude, readiness, and prioritized competency gaps to close.

4. Build In Application, Practice, and Follow-through
   Research consistently shows that without structured follow-through, employees forget up to 70% of new skills within a month. To make training stick, organizations must integrate application, practice, and ongoing support into every learning initiative.  that means purposefully integrating training into the flow of work.

   Provide ongoing opportunities for practice, coaching, and support so employees can consistently apply new skills on the job and achieve lasting results — while moving daily work forward.  Without an action learning approach, the transfer of training will not occur and your investments will be wasted.

5. Create Visible Reinforcement Mechanisms
   Establish processes and systems that encourage leaders to consistently model desired behaviors. Implement ongoing training measurement and accountability mechanisms to track progress, reinforce learning, and ensure sustained impact across the organization.

The Bottom Line
Establish a learning-focused environment both before and after training to ensure the right people acquire the right skills and can make a meaningful impact. Without this foundation, behavior and performance improvements are unlikely to stick.

To learn more about taking your corporate training to the next level, download the Top 5 Training Strategies and Key Mistakes to Avoid

Tristam Brown

Tristam Brown is a seasoned business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.