Just over a third of senior managers and executives of UK businesses said there is poor or no training provided for them.
This research was conducted by Rutbusters, the executive mentors who found that 34 per cent of senior managers and executives said “there is no training programme for senior executives here.”
There was also a feeling that as you age, less attention is focused on you with 41 per cent saying “the older you are, the less my organisation wants to spend on me.”
As well as 40 per cent saying “once you have been there a few years the will to train you stops.” These feelings are felt the most in the IT and telecoms and the banking and finance sectors.
With both 46 per cent of IT and telecoms and banking and finance senior executives saying that once you have been in the company for a few years the training stops. As well as 50 per cent of IT and telecoms saying the older you get, the less their company will spend on them. With 47 per cent of banking and finance saying the same.
The research showed the legal sector to be the best performer with only 27 per cent and 28 per cent agreeing with the two comments above.
In contrast, 62 per cent said that training for younger employees is “generally very thorough” with 54 per cent agreeing that their companies graduate scheme is similar.
Kedge Martin, CEO of Rutbusters, said:
It paints a bleak picture of the training of the UK’s 10 million professionals and senior executives, with our research finding at least a third reporting their organisation has little or no programme and another third seemingly damning theirs with faint praise.
It is particularly worrying that there are such high levels of dissatisfaction with the low provision of training at banking, financial services and tech businesses – core areas for the future of our economy. It can be no coincidence that our research found these sectors are also those where executives are most likely to report being burnt out and unhappy, which is hardly surprising if they are getting insufficient training for such demanding roles.
Providing suitable high quality training and mentoring to senior executives and managers is especially important in today’s business environment, with the UK in the midst of a productivity crisis, and many businesses facing both the huge challenges of Brexit and ongoing technological disruption.
Besides making people more effective in their role, ongoing training has been shown to improve work satisfaction, motivation and employee loyalty.
The research is based on the feedback from 1,000 senior managers and executives across different UK businesses.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
