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2011 United States Training Industry Report

publication date: Jan 2, 2012
 | 
author/source: HospitalityEducators.com Resources,
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Executive Summary- 2011 United States Training Industry Report

Training magazine's 30th annual training industry survey was administered during May and June of 2011. The final data set comprises 790 U.S. companies with more than 100 employees that are not providers or suppliers of training products or services.

The survey was built around previous years' surveys including 38 questions in 5 areas:

About the organization and respondent

Training expenditures and staffing

Training budgets

Methods of training delivery

Training outsourcing.

About the organization: The results were cross-tabulated by company size, dividing the companies according to number of employees in 3 ranges: Small - 100-999; Midsize - 1000-9999; and Large - more than 10,000. Our sample had 231 (29%) Small organizations, 314 (40%) Midsize, and 245 (31%) Large organizations. The majority (46.5%) of companies described their business as a "Service" organization. In a follow-up question, 17% of organizations identified themselves as Health/Medical service providers and 14% are in the Finance/Banking industry.

Across all responding companies, there were 7.8 million employees trained, with more than 7 million of them from large companies. We estimate that 73% of those trained are U.S. employees. Some large companies had high percentages of foreign trainees.

About the respondents: Our respondents were largely at the manager level (26%), Specialists or Supervisors (22%), or Instructional designers (25%), and had the role of determining the need for and recommending purchases. Less than 7% were VP level or higher, and 15% made final purchase decisions.

Total Annual Training Budgets are summarized in this table.

  Average Training Expenditures across 2011 Sample
Size Total Expenditures Staff Payroll Outside Products & Services
Small $ 256,082 $ 142,294 $ 37,071
Midsize $ 1,776,997 $ 745,663 $ 320,005
Large $ 12,677,841 $ 3,842,308 $ 2,636,219
 

Companies spent an average of 19% of their total budgets for training tools and technology. In the next year, 38% of companies anticipate purchasing Online Learning Tools & Systems and Authoring Tools/Systems and Classroom Tools and Systems, both at 32%. Companies spend an average of $749 per learner across all sizes. Large corporations spend considerably less ($375) and Manufacturer/Distributor organizations tend to spend the most ($1,150) compared to other types of companies.

32% of companies reported an increase in total training budget this year, with most in the 6%-15% increase range. More Retail/Wholesale companies reported an increase. 25% of companies reported a decrease in total budget in that same range, especially the Government/Military organizations. Many decreases were reportedly due to company-wide cutbacks.

Who is trained? Companies provide an average of 39 hours of training per year to each employee. Large organizations average higher (50 hours) with large Retail Wholesale companies providing an average of 93 hours. The bulk of training is for non-exempt employees (41%), although 34% of training is delivered to managers and executives.

Staff per learner: Large companies have the fewest staff per learner (8 per 1000), compared to Midsize (11) and Small (19) companies. 29% of companies report having an increase in training staff this year, while 55% remained the same and 16% had dropped.

Training Priorities: The main foci of training are on increasing effectiveness of training programs and reducing costs and improving efficiency. More than 50% of respondents listed these items as their top priorities.

Methods of delivery: Most companies use a blended approach to training delivery, combining online methods with classroom lectures. Mandatory or compliance training is mostly done online now, with 73% of companies reporting online methods. Most companies (69%) use a Leaning Management System (LMS) in their training programs, and many use Virtual Classroom/Webcasting/Video Broadcasting for at least some of their training. Larger organizations tend to use learning technologies to a greater extent that smaller companies.

Outsourcing: Companies tend to outsource custom content development and LMS operation hosting. 80% of learner support and LMS administration is handled in-house, and Instruction/Facilitation is about evenly split between in-house and outsourcing. Large organizations tend to outsource more, especially in the area of custom content development. Overall, respondents expect outsourcing to remain about the same in the coming year. Large companies will outsource less, especially for Instruction/Facilitation and LMS administration. Midsize companies may be outsourcing more for Custom content development.


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