White Paper: The Hidden And Not-So Hidden Costs Of Downsizing Education And Training

By Elizabeth Treher, Ph.D., The Learning Key, Inc.

It's not big news anymore – pharmaceutical organizations today are downsizing, rightsizing, partnering, and yes, struggling. When that happens training departments are often the first to feel the impact. Challenging times call for more employee development, not less. Logic would say we need greater skills, efficiency, and motivation as uncertainty increases. Yet we behave as if the opposite is true. By adding up the costs for trainers, materials, travel and expenses, the apparent savings to organizations by not delivering training can be easily calculated. Stopping training appears to be a simple way to reduce spending and improve the bottom line. Unfortunately the real cost to any organization of not providing education and training is far greater than any immediate so-called-savings.

Employees in all technology-based roles, operating in a regulated environment, must continue to learn and grow. So what happens when internal training is reduced or eliminated altogether? Costs can actually increase – for several reasons:

• Training delivery is reactive and driven by organizational emergencies.
• Training spending is hidden.
• Training doesn't occur at all. (Yes, this can be more costly.)