Many front-line managers and supervisors might consider employee development the job of HR, the training department, or outside training consultant. In reality, the responsibility for continuous learning—the kind that gives you a real ROI (return on investment) – rests squarely  on the shoulders of that immediate supervisor.

I’ve had clients ask me what kind of ROI I could guarantee as a result of my training services and the honest answer to that question is, “It depends upon your level of commitment and involvement with the implementation of the concepts taught and the reinforcement process established.” Simply stated, I don’t believe trainers should be taking credit for the success of any training initiative—it’s the “client” (whether internal or external) who does the work and the trainer or consultant is simply a resource for that client—and there are good and not-so-good resources out there.

The January issue of T&D (Training & Dev.) Magazine reported that most companies spend 10% of their training resources (time and $) on prework (like development), 85% on delivery and only 5% on follow-up and reinforcement. The actual value contributed by each phase of the learning process is 26% prework, 24% delivery, and 50% on follow-up and reinforcement! As you can see much of the success of the process is really in the hands of the supervisor.