# Why Your Company's Training Budget is Being Wasted The CFO walked into our quarterly review last month with a spreadsheet that made my stomach drop. Twenty-three thousand dollars spent on "professional development" in Q3 alone, and our customer satisfaction scores had actually gone backwards. I've been running training programs for Australian businesses for the past fourteen years, and I can tell you exactly why this keeps happening – most companies are throwing money at symptoms instead of solving the actual problem. **Related Reading:** - [Read more here](https://skillcoaching.bigcartel.com/blog) - [More insight](https://ducareerclub.net/blog) - [Further reading](https://ethiofarmers.com/blog) Here's what drives me absolutely mental about how most organisations approach their training budgets. They wait until something's broken, panic, then throw a generic course at it like they're treating a headache with chemotherapy. Last week I had a client tell me they'd just spent $8,000 on a two-day communication workshop because "people aren't talking to each other properly." When I asked what they meant by that, they couldn't give me a straight answer. This is the equivalent of buying a Ferrari to fix your commute when the real problem is that you're living in the wrong suburb. ## The Real Problem Nobody Talks About Most training fails because companies are solving the wrong problem. They see surface-level symptoms and immediately book the first consultant who promises to fix everything with a motivational PowerPoint presentation. I've seen this pattern repeat itself in everything from small Adelaide accounting firms to massive mining operations in Perth. The [advanced presentation skills training](https://skillcoaching.bigcartel.com/product/advanced-presentation-skills-training-perth) industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar beast, and half of it is built on companies not knowing what they actually need to fix. It's like going to the doctor and saying "I feel sick" without mentioning any symptoms. Here's the uncomfortable truth: 73% of training initiatives fail to create lasting behavioural change within six months. I know this because I've been tracking it across my client base for the past eight years, and the numbers are consistent whether you're dealing with a family business in Geelong or a corporate giant in Sydney. The biggest mistake? Companies train skills when they should be addressing systems. They teach people how to have better conversations when the real issue is that their meeting structure is fundamentally broken. They invest in [emotional intelligence training](https://skillsensei.bigcartel.com/product/emotional-intelligence-training-Melbourne) when the actual problem is that their performance review process creates anxiety and defensiveness. ## What Actually Works (And Why Most People Ignore It) The companies that get genuine ROI from their training budgets do three things differently, and I guarantee your organisation probably isn't doing any of them. First, they audit their systems before they train their people. Woolworths doesn't just teach checkout operators to be faster – they redesign the checkout process to eliminate unnecessary steps. ANZ doesn't just train their call centre staff to be more empathetic – they change their call metrics to reward quality over speed. Second, they train managers to reinforce learning, not just employees to learn new skills. This is where [customer service fundamentals training](https://achievementedge.bigcartel.com/product/customer-service-fundamentals-training) either succeeds brilliantly or fails completely. If a frontline worker learns new techniques but their supervisor still measures them on the old metrics, guess which approach wins? Third – and this is the part that makes HR departments uncomfortable – they accept that some people simply won't change, and they plan accordingly. Not everyone can be trained out of bad habits. Sometimes the most cost-effective solution is restructuring roles or, frankly, helping certain team members find opportunities elsewhere. ## The Australian Problem We've got a particular problem here in Australia that I don't see talked about enough. Our cultural tendency to "she'll be right" means we often underinvest in training until there's a crisis, then overinvest in the wrong solutions when panic sets in. I worked with a Brisbane logistics company last year that had spent nothing on [conflict resolution training](https://mentorleader.bigcartel.com/product/conflict-resolution-training) for three years running. Then they had one major workplace incident, and suddenly they wanted a full-day workshop for 200 people scheduled for next week. That's not training, that's crisis management theatre. The irony is that Australian workers are generally pretty receptive to learning new skills. We just need to be convinced that it's practical and relevant to our actual work, not some generic American-imported program about synergy and thinking outside the box. ## Why Generic Training is Like Generic Medicine Would you take medication prescribed for someone else's symptoms? Of course not. But that's exactly what happens when companies buy off-the-shelf training packages without diagnosing their specific issues first. I've lost count of how many times I've walked into a client meeting and been told they need "leadership development" or "team building" without any context about what's actually going wrong. It's like calling a mechanic and saying your car needs fixing without mentioning whether it won't start, makes weird noises, or is leaking oil everywhere. The [time management training](https://mentorleader.bigcartel.com/product/time-management-for-leaders) industry is particularly guilty of this one-size-fits-all approach. A software developer's time management challenges are completely different from a retail manager's, which are completely different from a trades supervisor's. But somehow we're supposed to believe that the same techniques work for everyone? ## The ROI Reality Check Here's something that might make you uncomfortable: most training programs can't be properly measured for ROI because companies don't establish clear baseline metrics before they start. They spend five figures on a program, everyone feels good about the team-building exercises, and six months later nobody can explain what actually improved. Real ROI measurement requires tracking specific behaviours and outcomes, not satisfaction surveys. Customer complaint reduction. Time to resolution improvements. Employee retention rates in specific departments. Revenue per customer interactions. [Strategic thinking training](https://coachingwise.bigcartel.com/product/strategic-thinking-training-sydney) should result in measurably better strategic decisions, not just people feeling more confident about their strategic thinking abilities. If you can't measure the improvement, you can't justify the investment. ## What Smart Companies Do Instead The organisations that consistently get value from their training budgets treat professional development like they treat any other business investment. They start with clear objectives, measure baseline performance, design targeted interventions, and track specific outcomes. They also recognise that different problems require different solutions. Sometimes the answer is skills training. Sometimes it's process redesign. Sometimes it's a difficult conversation with a specific team member. Sometimes it's acknowledging that the organisational structure itself is creating the problems. BHP doesn't just throw safety training at workers and hope for the best – they redesign work processes to minimise safety risks in the first place. Qantas doesn't just train customer service representatives to deal with angry passengers – they invest in systems that prevent delays and cancellations that create angry passengers. ## The Bottom Line Your training budget is probably being wasted because you're treating symptoms instead of causes, using generic solutions for specific problems, and measuring the wrong outcomes. The solution isn't to stop investing in people development – it's to get smarter about how you invest. Start by figuring out what you're actually trying to fix. Then determine whether training is the right solution or if you need to change systems, processes, or structures instead. And please, for the love of all that's holy, establish clear success metrics before you spend a single dollar. Because at the end of the day, professional development should develop professionals, not just make everyone feel like they've been developed. The best training investment I ever made? [Detailed planning with proper diagnostics](https://www.alkhazana.net/2025/07/16/why-firms-ought-to-invest-in-professional-development-courses-for-employees/) before spending anything on actual training delivery. Revolutionary concept, I know. --- *Need help designing training that actually works? [More information here](https://sewazoom.com/why-professional-development-courses-are-essential-for-career-growth/).*