UK SMEs Take The Brake Off Staff Training And Development

Small to medium sized businesses that cut back on staff development and training during the recession have finally started to loosen their purse strings, according to new research from supplier breatheHR.

The research - The Personal Development in the Workplace Study 2014 - says an increasing number of employees now feel that their employer is taking their personal development seriously, with 58% responding positively, compared with just 52% asked the same question in 2013.

The number of employees being provided with structured personal development plans has also increased, up 8% year on year to 42, while staff are also discussing their personal development more frequently with their employer - while those claiming that they never discuss development and training down 5%, to 23%.

However, more than half (58%) of all British SME workers currently aren’t provided with any personal development or training initiatives, while the number of men who feel that their personal development is important to their employer has risen 11% year on year to 61%, while only 54% of women feel the same.

Meanwhile, only 42% of men now have a personal development plan, compared with only 39% cent of women.

Structured Personal Development

For breatheHR's CEO Jonathon Richards, “While employers are beginning to invest time and resource into providing structured personal development, there is clearly still a huge room for improvement.

"Providing staff with a simple development plan doesn’t need to be overly time consuming or costly and can have a massive impact on productivity, morale and ultimately the success of the business.”

The research was commissioned by breatheHR and run by One Poll in the summer of 2014, with respondents coming from small businesses (1-250 employees) across the UK.

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