WHAT IMPACT DOES TRAINING HAVE ON EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT AND EMPLOYEE TURNOVER?

Training is of growing importance to companies seeking to gain an advantage among competitors. There is significant debate among professionals and scholars as to the affect that training has on both employee and organizational goals. One school of thought argues that training leads to an increase in turnover while the other states that training is a tool to that can lead to higher levels of employee retention (Colarelli & Montei, 1996; Becker, 1993). Regardless of where one falls within this debate, most professionals agree that employee training is a complex human resource practice that can significantly impact a company’s success. The training industry as a whole has shown significant growth through the years. Statistics indicate that investment in training is continuing to grow as more and more companies realize its importance. In 1995, $7.7 billion was spent on the wages and salaries of in-house company trainers and $2.8 billion was spent on tuition reimbursement (Frazis, Gittleman, Horrigan, Joyce, 1998). The American Society for Training and Development found that in 2004, the average annual training expenditure per employee was $955, which is an increase of $135 per employee from the previous year. The number of formal learning hours per employee also rose from 26 hours in 2003, to 32 hours in 2004 (atsd.com, 2005). As the investment in various training programs continue to rise, it becomes even more imperative for employer