My Thoughts

Why Your Company's Training Budget is Being Wasted

Three months ago, I walked into a Fortune 500 company's training room and watched forty-seven senior managers receive "leadership development" that consisted entirely of PowerPoint slides about emotional intelligence and a trust fall exercise. The facilitator - who I later discovered had never managed a team larger than herself - spent two hours explaining why millennials need "different motivation" while the actual millennials in the room rolled their eyes so hard I thought they'd detach their retinas.

This wasn't an isolated incident. It was Tuesday.

After twenty-two years consulting on workplace training programs across Australia, I can tell you with absolute certainty that 73% of corporate training budgets are being flushed down the drain faster than Melbourne's weather changes. And it's not because companies don't want to invest in their people - it's because they've completely lost the plot on what actual training looks like.

The One-Size-Fits-All Delusion

Here's what drives me absolutely mental: watching HR departments purchase training packages like they're buying toilet paper in bulk. "Let's get the communication skills workshop for everyone!" they announce, completely ignoring that their sales team needs to handle objections differently than their accounts payable clerks need to explain invoice discrepancies.

I once worked with a mining company in Perth who sent their entire workforce through the same "customer service excellence" program. Their drill operators. People who work underground and interact with rocks all day. The trainer spent forty minutes explaining how to "create memorable customer experiences" to blokes whose primary job requirement is not getting crushed by machinery.

But here's the controversial bit - generic training isn't always wrong. Sometimes you need everyone speaking the same language about workplace safety or compliance issues. The problem is when companies treat specific skill development like a mass vaccination program instead of personalised medicine.

The Facilitator Fantasy

The training industry has convinced business leaders that a good facilitator can teach anything to anyone. This is like believing a good driving instructor can teach someone to perform surgery because they're both "hands-on skills."

I've seen communications consultants with zero retail experience attempt to train shop floor staff about difficult customers. I've watched leadership coaches who've never worked in construction try to explain conflict resolution to site supervisors dealing with subcontractors. The disconnect is staggering.

Real training happens when someone who's actually done the job - and done it well - shares what they've learned with people facing similar challenges. Everything else is expensive entertainment.

The Measurement Myth

"How do we measure the ROI of this training?" they always ask, usually about three minutes before signing a cheque for $50,000. Then they hand out happiness sheets at the end and call it evaluation.

Here's what actually matters: Can your people do things they couldn't do before? Are they solving problems faster? Making fewer mistakes? Having better conversations with customers? These aren't hard to measure if you're paying attention to the right things.

But most companies measure training success like they're rating a Netflix show instead of assessing skill development. "Did you enjoy the session?" tells you nothing about whether someone can now manage difficult conversations more effectively than they could yesterday.

I worked with a logistics company who spent $80,000 on presentation skills training for their operations managers. Six months later, none of them could present their quarterly results without reading directly from PowerPoint slides. But the feedback forms were fantastic.

The Follow-Up Failure

Most training programs die the moment people leave the room. No follow-up. No practice opportunities. No reinforcement. It's like teaching someone to drive, taking away their car, and expecting them to remember how to parallel park six months later.

The companies that get results from training understand that learning happens over time, not in a single session. They build in practice opportunities. They create peer support groups. They actually care whether people can apply what they've supposedly learned.

This isn't rocket science. It's just uncommon.

The Technology Trap

Don't get me started on online learning platforms that promise to "revolutionise workplace development." I've seen more engagement in a dentist's waiting room than in most corporate eLearning modules.

Yes, technology can support learning. But it can't replace the human connection that makes real development possible. You can't learn to handle an angry customer by clicking through scenarios on a screen any more than you can learn to swim by watching YouTube videos.

The best training I've ever seen combined face-to-face skill practice with targeted online resources. Not one or the other. Both.

What Actually Works

After two decades of watching companies waste money on training that doesn't work, I can tell you exactly what does work:

Start with real problems. Don't train people on theoretical leadership concepts. Help them solve the actual challenges they're facing right now. If your team leaders struggle with performance conversations, teach them how to have those specific conversations with their actual team members.

Use people who've done the job. Your emotional intelligence training should be delivered by someone who's successfully managed teams, not someone who's read books about managing teams.

Make it specific. Customer service training for a hardware store should be different from customer service training for a law firm. Context matters more than you think.

Build in practice. Real practice with real scenarios and real feedback. Not role-plays where everyone giggles and feels awkward.

Follow up relentlessly. Check in. Provide support. Create opportunities for people to apply what they've learned. Most skills decay without reinforcement.

The Hard Truth About Learning

Here's something training companies won't tell you: some people don't want to learn new skills. They're comfortable doing things the way they've always done them, and no amount of engaging facilitation will change that.

Good training identifies these people quickly and focuses energy on those who are ready to develop. Trying to train someone who doesn't want to be trained is like trying to teach a cat to fetch. Theoretically possible, but probably not worth the effort.

This doesn't make you a bad manager. It makes you realistic about human nature.

The Investment That Pays Off

Companies that treat training as genuine skill development rather than corporate theatre see remarkable results. Their people become more confident, more capable, and more valuable. Customer satisfaction improves. Employee retention increases. Problems get solved faster.

But it requires thinking about training differently. Instead of asking "What training do we need?" ask "What can't our people do that they need to be able to do?" Then find people who can actually teach those specific skills.

Stop buying training like you're shopping for groceries. Start investing in development like you're building capability.

Your people deserve better than trust falls and PowerPoint presentations. They deserve training that actually makes them better at their jobs.

And your training budget deserves to produce something more valuable than good feedback scores and certificates of participation.

The choice is yours. Keep wasting money on training that doesn't work, or start investing in development that actually develops people.

I know which one makes more sense.

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