Further Resources

Why Your Company's Training Budget is Being Wasted

Three months ago, I watched a room full of middle managers shuffle into yet another "transformational leadership workshop" at a gleaming conference centre in Melbourne, clutching their branded notebooks and wearing the expression of people heading to root canal surgery.

By lunch, half were checking emails. By 3 PM, the facilitator was desperately trying to salvage engagement with trust falls. The whole thing cost the company $47,000, and I guarantee you nothing changed except the catering budget took a hit.

Here's the uncomfortable truth about corporate training that nobody wants to say out loud: most of it is complete rubbish.

The Problem Isn't What You Think

Before you start drafting an angry response about how training transformed your workplace culture, hear me out. I've been running workplace training programs for over sixteen years, and I've seen enough corporate training disasters to know exactly where the bodies are buried.

The problem isn't that training doesn't work. The problem is that 78% of companies approach it like they're buying office supplies instead of investing in human transformation.

You wouldn't hire a plumber to rewire your house, yet somehow every second company thinks a one-size-fits-all training program will magically fix their specific cultural dysfunction. It's madness.

The Facilitator Shopping Spree Phenomenon

Let me paint you a picture. Sarah from HR gets tasked with "sorting out the leadership development." She googles "leadership training Brisbane," finds someone with a slick website and decent testimonials, books them for a day, then sits back feeling like she's ticked a major box.

The facilitator rocks up (usually running late because they couldn't find parking), delivers their standard 6-hour program that they've been recycling since 2019, collects their cheque, and disappears into the sunset. Meanwhile, Sarah's boss expects to see measurable behaviour change by Thursday.

This is like expecting to become fluent in Mandarin after watching one episode of a Chinese cooking show.

What Actually Happens in Most Training Sessions

Here's the dirty secret about corporate training: most participants are physically present but mentally planning their weekend or wondering if their kid's soccer practice got rained out. The engagement levels would make a funeral director weep.

I've watched grown adults play "networking bingo" during communication skills workshops. I've seen senior executives sneak out for "important calls" that last suspiciously long. One memorable session in Perth, a participant actually fell asleep during a module on staying alert during meetings. The irony was lost on absolutely no one.

The facilitators know this, by the way. They can spot a disengaged group from the car park. But they've got bills to pay and a program to deliver, so they soldier on, hoping someone in the room absorbs something useful.

The Follow-Up Fantasy

Here's where things get really interesting. Companies spend thousands on training, then do absolutely nothing to reinforce it. It's like buying a gym membership and expecting to get fit without actually going to the gym.

The best training programs include follow-up sessions, peer coaching, and management support. But that costs extra and takes time, so most organisations skip it entirely. Then they wonder why nothing changed after their expensive one-day workshop.

I had one client who spent $23,000 on customer service training for their retail team, then immediately went back to their old processes without implementing any of the new strategies. Six months later, they complained that the training "didn't work."

It's like buying a Ferrari and being surprised it doesn't go fast when you leave it in the garage.

The Real Reasons Training Fails

Training fails because organisations treat symptoms instead of causes. They see poor communication and book a communication workshop. They notice low morale and order up some team building. They observe conflict and immediately Google "conflict resolution training."

But here's the thing – if your workplace culture is toxic, no amount of training will fix it. If your managers are incompetent, a leadership workshop won't magically transform them into inspiring leaders. If your processes are broken, teaching people better processes won't help if you don't actually change the broken ones.

It's like putting a band-aid on a broken bone. Technically you're addressing the injury, but you're missing the point entirely.

The Measurement Problem

Ask most HR managers how they measure training effectiveness, and you'll get some combination of blank stares and mentions of "happy sheets" – those satisfaction surveys participants fill out at the end of sessions.

News flash: satisfaction doesn't equal learning. Learning doesn't equal behaviour change. And behaviour change doesn't equal business results.

I once delivered what participants rated as the "best workshop ever" according to their feedback forms. Three months later, the same company called asking for help with exactly the same problems we'd supposedly addressed. Turns out feeling good about training and actually applying it are entirely different things.

You want to know if training worked? Look at your KPIs twelve months later. Check customer satisfaction scores. Measure employee turnover. Count the number of workplace disputes. That's where the real results live.

The Timing Disaster

Most companies schedule training like they're booking a venue for the Christmas party – whenever it's convenient and fits the budget. This is backwards thinking that guarantees failure.

Effective training happens when people are ready to learn and apply new skills immediately. Not when the training budget needs spending before financial year-end. Not when the facilitator has a gap in their schedule. Not when it's convenient for everyone's calendar.

I've seen companies book team development workshops right before major restructures. I've watched organisations schedule stress management training during their busiest season. It's like trying to teach someone to swim while they're drowning.

The best training happens when there's a specific business need, clear objectives, and immediate opportunities to practice new skills. Everything else is just expensive entertainment.

What Good Training Actually Looks Like

Here's something that might surprise you: the most effective training often doesn't look like traditional training at all.

Good training is messy, specific, and directly relevant to what people do every day. It includes real scenarios, actual problems, and immediate application opportunities. It's supported by management, reinforced through practice, and measured against real business outcomes.

Companies like Canva and Atlassian get this right. They design learning experiences that connect directly to employee goals and company objectives. They provide ongoing support, measure real results, and adjust based on what actually works.

But that takes effort, planning, and genuine commitment to change. Most organisations aren't willing to invest in that level of rigour.

The Solution Nobody Wants to Hear

Want to fix your training budget wastage? Start by admitting that training isn't a magic solution to organisational problems.

Stop booking training to make yourself feel better about workplace issues. Stop choosing facilitators based on price and availability. Stop treating training like a one-off event instead of an ongoing process.

Instead, identify specific behaviour changes you need to see. Design learning experiences that directly address those behaviours. Provide ongoing support and practice opportunities. Measure results against actual business outcomes.

And please, for the love of all that's holy, stop booking team building workshops where people fall backwards and trust their colleagues to catch them. It's 2025. We can do better than trust falls.

The Uncomfortable Truth

The uncomfortable truth is that most training budgets would be better spent on fixing the fundamental problems that make training necessary in the first place.

Hire better managers instead of training bad ones. Fix broken processes instead of teaching people to work around them. Create better workplace cultures instead of trying to paper over toxic ones with feel-good workshops.

But that requires admitting that the problems run deeper than what any facilitator can fix in a day. And most organisations aren't ready for that level of honesty.

So they'll keep booking training, keep being disappointed with results, and keep wondering why their people aren't magically transforming into high-performing teams.

Meanwhile, their training budget will keep disappearing into the same black hole that swallows most corporate initiatives: good intentions, poor execution, and zero follow-through.

The choice is yours. Keep doing what you've always done, or start treating training like the serious business investment it should be.

Just don't expect miracles from mediocre workshops. Your people deserve better than that.