Train to Gain

"Shares of companies that spend the most on employee training and development outperform those that spend the least, a study [by the American Society of Training and Development] has found...

Companies that ranked in the top 20 percent or so in spending on training and development would have earned an average of 16.2 percent, annualized, in the five years through 2001... Better yet, that market-bearing performance was produced with about 10 percent less risk, as measured by the volatility of returns....

Over those same five years, companies at the bottom of the training-expense rankings had significantly lower returns."

See the entire article,
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/31/business/yourmoney/31STRA.html, New York Times, March 31, 2002, Section 3, p. 6, "Within Companies, Too, Education Proves Its Value", Mark Hulbert.

To order the study, "The 2004 ASTD State of the Industry Report", call the American Society of Training and Development, 1-800-628-2783 and reference Product/SKU #190501.