A recent survey by 1Huddle shows a trend that will hurt companies in the long run. At issue – “a 96% cut in the total number of director and senior-level positions in talent development or training, according to 1Huddle’s analysis of more than 57 million corporate onboarding and training sessions.”. A huge survey with major implications.
If employees are properly trained, with original, current L&D content tailored to organizational needs, they perform at a higher level. Ironically, executives complain about deficient employee skills, but downsize the one department that can help. Lack of training extends to your frontline management, and now you require them to instruct staff in everything from business writing to AI.
Newsflash: middle managers struggle just to get performance reviews done. Without any structure, without any support, now you demand they become trainers, AND managers, coaches, analysts, AND do work their employees can’t get done. As Sam Caucci, CEO of 1Huddle says in the article “That’s redistribution without infrastructure”.
Caucci states he “expects reductions in senior talent development roles to continue throughout 2026… until companies realize they’ve destroyed their ability to scale.”.
It’s simple, you sacrifice now for increased profit and revenue, forfeiting so much down the road. As an executive your job is to “mind the company store” and keep your employees trained, not to screw up its future.
Furthermore, expecting employees to seek out learning during personal time is just silly. Which platform? What courses? Plus, they don’t have the time or money. It’s incumbent on you to offer proper onboarding and ongoing professional development during business hours.
Stop looking only at cost and start considering downstream impact of that expense on future revenue and profit. If you continue this trend, most companies will be behind the curve, and many will be gone in five years!