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Despite significant annual expenditure on public sector training, a lack of formal evaluation means there is little way of proving a return on investment (ROI). Consequently, gaining senior management buy-in for bigger training budgets is a difficult task, according to new research.

Responses from 101 central and local government and NHS bodies to the research by LogicaCMG, revealed that only a third of public sector organisations map training effectiveness against job performance.

It revealed that 83% of public sector HR directors are still using the simple tick-box ‘Happy Sheet’ approach, which does not measure the true impact of training and, according to nearly two-thirds, makes measuring ROI difficult. This inability to prove the value and effectiveness of training has a serious impact on funding – one third of those responsible for training said they have an average budget shortfall of a third.

One in three HR professionals agreed that they tend to impose training upon employees based on perceived, rather than actual, need.

“Concerning the public sector specifically, accounting for the return on training investment is paramount – especially given the size of annual budgets and the perceived shortfalls”, said Keith Scott, director of training at LogicaCMG. “There is a definite and immediate need for change in the way that training is defined, deployed and evaluated”, he commented.