I have a close friend who always seems to be cutting dinner dates and coffee meetings short because of either training or a meeting. Once I noticed that this was a frequent pattern, I mentioned that he seems to go to a lot of these work related “extras”. He then told me that everyone knew that these mandatory sessions are a waste of time and money, but they look good to the higher-ups. So naturally, I asked more questions.
I found out that he attends at least one mandatory meeting each month outside of his normal work hours. The meeting or training sessions (they seem to be a blend of both) last an average of 3 hours. His entire department is made to attend, which is anywhere from 15-30, depending on the time of year and how many are needed to work during the time of the meeting. They are of course paid for their attendance, and these meetings are catered.
I understand that keeping up with general compliance is a daunting task, and one that makes training sessions and meetings like this necessary. The point here is that if compliance isn’t organized and tracked with the proper tools, these meetings can get out of hand very quickly.
These meetings seem to be covering things that don’t affect him or his immediate co-workers at all. They aren’t asked to weigh-in or participate, they are simply there to listen and eat deli sandwiches. If a company is paying people to be there and ensure that training needs and compliances are met, they should be doing those things in the most efficient way possible, and this doesn’t sound like it is.
At this point, I knew I had to crunch these numbers. I won’t bore you with the details of my calculations, but per year, I estimated that they spend at least $15,000 on these training sessions that are simply not as efficient or as effective as they could be with the right training and comliance tools. I didn’t even work in time for planning and leadership roles. The company that he works for has several sister branches at which the same “training” practices are taking place.
Meetings and training are meant to be useful tools to drive success. If they end up being a total waste of resources, you’re doing something wrong, and it’s costing the company big time. Training can be very costly if you’re not tracking progress and using metrics to improve. You have to define the metrics and then use them in order to get a return on your investment.
Having the right tools to ensure that training is efficient and effective keeps stories like this from happening. Who is watching this? Who thinks that this manner of training is in any way effective? Who is in charge of that? Learning management systems take all of the guesswork out of measuring and tracking training to ensure that these financial black holes disappear. Just imagine what the right LMS would do for this company.
