A plethora of studies indicate that the majority of training dollars is being wasted. Research by Dr. Brent Peterson of Columbia University suggests why this is true. Dr. Peterson compared the amount of time that is spent developing training and related activities and what actually contributes to learning effectiveness. According to Dr. Peterson:

  • Pre-learning event activities represent 26% of learning effectiveness
  • Learning event activities represent 24% of learning effectiveness
  • Post-learning event activities represent 50% of learning effectiveness

However, Peterson’s research reveals that companies invest:

  • 10% of their training budgets on pre-learning event activities
  • 85% on learning event activities
  • 5% on post-learning event activities

Incredibly, the typical organization invests 85% of its training budget in the training event, yet those events only contribute 24% to the learning effectiveness of the participants.  Only 5% of the typical training budget is allocated to post-learning event activities, despite the fact that 50% of learning effectiveness happens in follow-up activities.

Learning professionals must redefine their roles to correct the imbalance between learning investment and learning effectiveness. They need to allocate a far greater percentage of their training budgets to post-event, on-the-job training activities. This is backed up by research from Josh Bersin and Associates that concludes that:

  •  70% of learning occurs on the job
  • Only 10% of learning occurs during the training event (20% occurs prior to the event)

At Points of You, our focus is on ensuring that newly-learned principles are transferred from the workshop to the workplace. Our use of visual stimuli and motivating stories significantly enhance material retention and our post-learning  event coaching process ensures that the learning sticks months and years later. The result- a much greater ROI on training initiatives.