Does anticipation of employee departures hamper the provision of in-company continuing vocational training?
A total of 360 training companies provided information regarding employee departures. They were asked how many employees had left the particular company in 2009 at their own request. The ratio of this number to the total number of employees is the employee departure rate. It declines with growing company size (see Diagram 1).
Diagram 1: Average employee departure rate in 2009, by company size
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Source: RBS Survey 1/2010; n=360
In many cases, workers who change employers can continue to use skills and competences they acquired while working for their former employer. Consequently, nearly all training companies (74%, n=393) hold that other enterprises also benefit from their investment in CVT when employees who have received CVT switch to another company. In fact, this figure rises to some 90 per cent among companies with more than 500 employees (n=127). However, considerably fewer companies say that this condition plays a role when deciding whether to assume the costs of continuing vocational training (see Diagram 2, p. 39): Large companies in particular say that they give little consideration to this aspect. In contrast, it is more likely that small and micro enterprises attach a degree of importance to it. Nonetheless, this aspect is generally not a deciding factor.
Diagram 2: Level of importance that anticipated employee departures have for a company's assumption of continuing vocational training costs
When deciding whether to assume training costs, does the fact that other enterprises may benefit from your investment when employees who have received CVT switch employers play a role in your decision?
Source: RBS Survey 1/2010; n=356
In line with this, most (some 88% of all companies) said that they would not invest more even if fewer of their employees were to leave their company at their own request (n=345). Companies in the smallest size classification constitute the only exception here: A total of 19 per cent said that they would increase their investment. Most of the companies in this group were craft businesses.
Training companies largely disregard the possibility of employee departures when investing in continuing vocational training for their employees, at least according to this data. Although they are of the opinion that other companies also benefit from their investment in continuing vocational training, they said they generally do not cut down on their spending. The behaviour of competing companies also appears not to be detrimental to a company's provision of continuing vocational training. Only four per cent would cut back on their own investment in CVT (n=393) in the event that other companies in the same sector were to increase their investment. Most (81%) said they do not respond at all to the CVT policies of other companies in the same sector. Fifteen per cent said they would increase their investment as well. This would seem to indicate that CVT also serves to keep a company attractive for its employees in comparison to competing companies.
Diagram 3: Anticipated risk of employee departure after assumption of continuing vocational training costs
With your company's assumption of CVT costs, the risk of employee departure ...
Source: RBS Survey 1/2010; n=393
This finding tallies with the answers given to the question of whether the risk that employees who have received CVT might switch to another company increases, declines or remains the same when a company assumes the cost of CVT. A good 24 per cent of the 39 companies answering this question believe that said risk is more likely to decline. Only in isolated cases is it feared that employees would in fact be more likely to switch to another company after having received in-company continuing vocational training. The majority however assumes that the provision of continuing vocational training does not have any influence on whether their employees take up employment with another company (see Diagram 3).
