So Much Training, So Little to Show for It

The Wall Street Journal:

Companies devote a lot of time, effort and money to corporate training—with little to show for it.

U.S. firms spent about $156 billion on employee learning in 2011, the most recent data available, according to the American Society for Training and Development. But with little practical follow-up or meaningful assessments, some 90% of new skills are lost within a year, some research suggests.

Eduardo Salas, a professor of organizational psychology at the University of Central Florida and a program director at its Institute for Simulation and Training, has studied corporate training programs for more than two decades. What happens before and after a training session, he says, is just as important as the actual instruction itself.

The Wall Street Journal spoke with Dr. Salas to discuss his research. Here are edited excerpts of that conversation:

Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal