UK Training Industry Press Releases

Echelon warns against false economy in a time of economic downturn.

In times of financial turmoil, organisations often look upon training as a soft target and so it becomes one of the first budgets to be reduced or even cut completely. Yet this can prove a false economy, warns the organisation development consultancy, Echelon.

"While training should take its fair share of budget cuts, failure to develop staff hits competence, motivation, productivity and, ultimately, customer service and profitability - just at the time when finding and keeping customers is vital," explained Echelon's CEO, Alistair Morrison. 

"When everyone else is following the traditional line of reducing training spend, it's important to gain competitive advantage by maintaining your investment in people and performance," he added. "However, this can now be done at a significantly lower cost."

Morrison argues that traditional classroom-based training alone is both expensive and time-consuming - commodities which are likely to be in short supply for the foreseeable future.