Examination of the utility of training : relationships with turnover and promotion.

Abstract

Each year, organizations in the United States spend millions of dollars on training their employees. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the training investment by looking at its relationships with turnover and promotion. Five overarching hypotheses were tested: (1) Organizations that invest in more training will experience less turnover, (2) organizations that have a promote-from-within strategy will be more likely to provide training for their employees, (3) organizations that actually promote-from within will be more likely to provide training for their employees, (4) organizations that have a promote-from-within strategy will experience less turnover, and (5) organizations that actually promote-from-within will experience less turnover. Using a sample of26 credit unions across the United States, two of the hypotheses were partially supported. The results revealed that organizations that have a promote-from-within strategy for management/supervisory positions provide more training for managers! supervisors than those with a hire-from-outside strategy. In addition, organizations that actually promote employees into management/supervisory positions experience less overall turnover. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.