The Four Types of Training That Should Never Be Cut

Workforce Management
The recession has put employers under attack from employees and government enforcement agencies, making four kinds of training essential. This article describes why the four are vital, and offers return-on-investment arguments for each. By Lynn D. Lieber
January 2010

Often one of the first line items to be cut from HR budgets is training, which can be perceived by high-level executives as “a good thing to do” but nonessential to their organizations in these challenging financial times. In reality, workforce training has never been more important, and it provides a stronger-than-ever return on investment.
The recession has put employers under attack by employees government enforcement agencies. Consider the following facts:
• From 2007 to the end of 2008, employment claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission increased by 14.5 percent, from 83,000 to 95,000.
• In 2008, retaliation claims filed with the EEOC jumped 22 percent, from 27,000 to 33,000 claims.
• The EEOC just hired 170 new investigators for intake and investigation purposes.
• Corporate counsel reported significant rises in employment disputes in the past year, with discrimination suits rising by 11 percent.
• The Department of Labor recently added of 250 new wage-and-hour field investigators—a staff increase of more than a third—along with additional new staff in the department’s Office of the Solicitor.
• In December 2008, Wal-Mart agreed to pay as much as $640 million to resolve 63 class-action lawsuits involving wage-and-hour violations across the nation.
In light of such statistics, there are four types of training that should never be cut. These programs—essential for most workforces— are training in the prevention of unlawful harassment and discrimination, prevention of workplace violence, prevention of wage-and-hour law violations and adherence to the organization’s code of conduct. There are sound return-on-investment arguments for each one.
1. Training to prevent discrimination and harassment The EEOC charge numbers cited above represent only the tip of the iceberg. They do not include harassment and discrimination charges filed with state enforcement agencies, in state courts or those related to conflicts that settle before the charges are formally filed.
In the event of a layoff, employees who are terminated might perceive that they were targeted for belonging to one of the legally protected categories, such as age, race, gender or national origin. Employees who haven’t been laid off might view filing a harassment or discrimination claim as “job security,” falsely believing that such a claim makes it impossible for an employer to terminate their employment.
The return on investment
Many courts have held that regular—generally, that means annual—harassment prevention training allows an employer to establish an affirmative defense to avoid liability in cases where the allegedly aggrieved employee has not suffered any tangible job detriment, such as a demotion or termination. (If there is a tangible employment action, such as a termination, this affirmative defense is not available.)

Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/26/92/03/index.php

Dear Workforce: How Do We Measure ROI on Diversity?

Workforce Management
Dear Workforce Newsletter

Dear Workforce: How Do We Measure ROI on Diversity?
Don’t get hung up on proving ROI. Instead, spend your time (and money) on initiatives that make business sense. A successful diversity effort creates a culture in which people of various backgrounds are happy, productive and successful.

Dear Workforce:
What problems might I expect to encounter related to championing diversity in the workplace? Also, what is a good tool to measure the return on investment of having a diverse workforce? I’ve heard varying accounts of whether diversity is a useful tool or merely a politically correct buzzword.
— Blending People Together, services, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Dear Blending:
Promoting the concept of diversity in the workplace is, above all, a process of education. Organizations that report the greatest success (and fewest problems) with diversity obtain maximum productivity from their total workforce. The fundamental concept that your people must understand is easy to grasp: Organizations that get maximum productivity from a wide variety of people tend to perform better than those organizations that don’t.
We have not seen a valid tool for accurately measuring the return on investment in diversity, nor do we believe one exists that would work in a universal sense for most organizations. This article, Diversity’s Business Case Doesn’t Add Up, casts doubt on the claims of some companies that they have proved the ROI of their diversity efforts.
That is not to say that there’s no business value in managing a diverse workforce well; it’s just that no reliable method has been developed to measure that value definitively. That being said, if Company A has developed systems, procedures, policies and a culture that allows men and women from diverse backgrounds to succeed, while Company B’s systems work only for certain types of people, it stands to reason that Company A is going to perform better. The argument needs no help from a measurement tool.
Some people will resist your effort to promote diversity, no matter how skillfully executed. Don’t let that deter you.

Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/archive/article/24/51/08.php