Is your organization getting its value for money from its training evaluation? According to ASTD’s Value of Evaluation report only about one-quarter of respondents agreed that their organization got solid “bang for the buck” from its training evaluation efforts. With the tough economic demands, business leaders have to scrutinize costs even more, to find greater efficiencies. This highlights the need for the true value of evaluating learning to be realized and for current practices to adapt to increased efficiency and effectiveness demands.

Ninety-two percent of respondents to ASTD’s Value of Evaluation report indicated that they measure at least Level 1 (reactions of participants) of the model. More...

Tags: value of evaluation, training evaluation, kirkpatrick/phillips model, five levels of evaluation

Categories: Research

Austin, TX (PRWEB) -- Profiles International, a global leader in employment evaluation and human resource management assessment tools, has released a report identifying eight signs of incompetent managers. Along with the signs of managerial incompetence, the report also offers practical remedies for management training to help managers achieve greater success. Highlighting information gleaned from its research into America's Most Productive Companies, this report emphasizes that the most productive companies are more proactive than their peers when it comes to identifying and developing effective management.

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Tags: manager, leadership, training, skills gap

Categories: News | Research

Employers throughout Asia Pacific continue to keep a tight rein on the purse strings in 2009, as salary increases remain at low levels, according to an Asia Pacific Salary Increase Survey conducted by Hewitt Associates (NYSE:HEW), a global human resources consulting and outsourcing firm. This trend looks likely to continue in 2010 as base salaries are projected to rise only slightly in most Asia Pacific markets.

The Hewitt 2009/2010 salary increase survey sees a dramatic decline in salary increase in the two prominent markets of China & India for the first time over the last five years. The 2009 actual salary increase rate went down by 4 percent and 8 percent respectively, which is also the lowest salary increases recorded since 2005.
This year, there is no Asian market which experienced a double digit salary increase. India had the highest percentage pay rise in the region with the average overall salary increase at 6.3 percent. Indonesia ranks second, with the average overall salary increase at 6 percent, followed by China (4.5 percent) and the Philippines (4.3 percent).

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Tags: economic downturn, recession, compensation, asia pacific, talent

Categories: Research | The Economy

Men and women are accepting — and even embracing — the increasing role of women in the workplace, but many are still struggling with the repercussions  on family life.

Those are some of the findings of a nationwide survey released Thursday in conjunction with a major report on the status of women by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress.

"The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything" takes an in-depth look at what has happened, and what still needs to happen, now that women make up virtually half the work force, up from about one-third of the work force 40 years ago.

The survey found that around three-quarters of men and women believe that the growing presence of women in the workplace has been very or somewhat positive for American society and the economy.

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Tags: workplace, women, gender issues, trends

Categories: News | Research

As the unemployment rate catapulted upwards to nearly 10 percent over the past year, the importance of severance polices was prevalent at companies across the country. The 2009 BenchmarkPro results showed that 55.2 percent of companies surveyed currently have a severance policy in place.

Companies in the manufacturing industry report having severance policies at a rate of 66 percent, compared to the insurance industry, 61.9 percent. Healthcare offers severance at a rate of 53.6 percent, while utility companies offer it at 45.4 percent. Severance is offered least to employees at not-for-profits, 41.6 percent.

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Tags: new economy, unemployment, severance, layoffs

Categories: Research | The Economy

The silver lining in a lousy economy is employee retention, but as economic prospects brighten, most firms are thinking about ways to retain talent, according to the latest study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) on the subject of organizational turnover and engagement. But that doesn’t necessarily translate into big raises for most employees, who have seen few pay raises of late.

In this down economy, the study, the full results of which are now available to i4cp members in both standard and interactive form, found that higher market performing companies are more than twice as likely to offer pay raises to keep key talent from walking out the door than are lower performers.

The study showed that 18% of high-performing organizations have already taken the step of increasing compensation levels to reduce turnover, compared to 7% of lower performers. Over the next six to 12 months, the same ratio of high performers (18%) plan to implement pay raises, while almost a quarter (24%) of lower performers have plans to do so.

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Tags: new economy, research, employee retention, employee engagement, turnover, performance

Categories: Research | The Economy

ASTD Research has released its Learning Executive Confidence Index for the third quarter of 2009. 292 learning executives (LXs) responded to an online invitation-only survey, contributing to a Q3 LXCI of 60.7. This score is an increase of 1.3 points from a Q2 2009 LXCI of 59.4. This score is the highest value on record, indicating increasing optimism in the performance of the learning function. Highlights from the report include: More...

Tags: lxci, learning executive confidence index

Categories: Research

Does your organization have an executive development program? If not, they are representative of the 34% of organizations recently sampled in the Executive Development: Strategic and Tactical Approaches report that have no active executive development program. Only 38% of participating companies have an active executive development program, while 23% have a program that is activated as necessary.

The executive development “playground” is dominated by “the big kids” – large organizations with substantial revenues. As annual revenue increases, so does the likelihood of having an executive development program. Executive development is a costly investment, with the average amount spent on each employee participating in a program reaching $12,370. More...

Tags: executive development, executive development approaches

Categories: Research

During the past year, executive compensation packages have come under increased scrutiny at organizations across the country. While many companies are making efforts to cut back on the overall cost of executive compensation, offering perquisites that ensure the effectiveness of their employees is gaining momentum.

The newly released Executive Compensation 2009/2010 survey found supplemental medical coverage is offered to 32.7 percent of Chief Executive Officers, nationally. Supplemental coverage is also provided to Chief Financial Officers and Chief Operating Officers at a rate of 23.5 and 20.6 percent, respectively.

"Ensuring the health of a company's top executives is of growing importance at organizations across the country," said Amy Kaminski, manager of marketing programs for Compdata Surveys, the nation's leading compensation and benefits data provider. "Executives are spending more time hard at work, both in and out of the office, and the stress they encounter can take its toll on their health and by extension, their productivity."

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Tags: executives, compensation, benefits

Categories: News | Research

Customer service positions among young and experienced candidates are gaining in popularity at U.S. contact centers like Ryla Inc., a leading domestic provider of outsourced call center and customer contact solutions.

“Because of the downturn and the need to build customer loyalty, U.S. contact centers are rapidly growing,” said Mark Wilson, co-founder and CEO of Ryla. “Companies are realizing it costs six times more to acquire new customers than it does to retain existing customers; great customer service is a vital link to customer retention.”

According to a recent Frost & Sullivan report, U.S. call center revenues are expected to hit $29 billion by 2014.

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Tags: customer service, trends, millennials, baby boomers

Categories: News | Research