It’s the Government’s Fault

The CIPD’s Guide to Assigning Blame

by Adrian Harvey

Adrian started his career as a jeweller but quickly became disillusioned with Retail and waiting for customers to come to him!

He joined ABNAMRO leasing subsidiary LeasePlan aged 23 and spend a decade in corporate finance working with GE Capital and BNP Paribas. He ran his own sales consultancy for 3 years and then Joined the Board of BNP Paribas owned PHH aged 30 and switched codes to join the energy sector a couple of years later.

10 years spent as MD of British Gas and Eon in the UK saw Adrian recruit Dan and together form Green Giraffe, which led to the invention of Clever Nelly and the formation of Elephants don't forget.

Adrian lives in Sunbury on Thames in Surrey. He enjoys sailing, shooting, cycling, fishing, coaching youth rugby and drinking beer.

His pet hate is the word “can’t”!

I was sent a press release from the CIPD, claiming the Government Apprentice Levy had failed and was, in fact, counter-productive to the broader aims of the L&D sector and it was all the government's fault that employers didn’t want to invest in workplace training.

OK, I get the CIPD has a huge vested interest in banging the drum for investment in L&D and, not unsurprisingly, some/many employers resented, and still do, being lumbered with a stealth tax and told what training it can/can’t be spent on. So, when asked in a survey (I believe conducted and compiled by the CIPD), one must recognise that the results are hardly impartial and to some extent, the conclusions must be absorbed with caution.

I accept that the Apprentice Levy was never going to be popular, was probably ill-conceived and the Government could have done a better job. But is it fair of the CIPD to lay 100% of the blame at the door of the government?

Certainly not! This is a classic case I think of glasshouses and stone-throwers. I think it’s time the CIPD “held the mirror up” and look at what they see.

Perhaps if the CIPD were to:

Concentrate on helping its membership communicate in the language of the boardroom, rather than pointless jargon that no ExCo member understands or really cares about.
Concentrate on ensuring that what is trained actually gets learned
Move with the times and adopt technology from this century like AI rather than obsessing about technology from the last (LMS)
Spend less time and attention on obsessing about member certification and selling training courses

Then just maybe UK plc would be happy and willing to invest far more in training than they are taxed under the Levy. Give the ExCo what they want, guaranteed learning outcomes that move the dial on employee performance, compliance and risk reduction and they will fall over themselves to invest.

Harsh? Ask yourself this simple question. “If the wider L&D community delivered a product that the ExCo valued, like they do say IT, do you think we would be in the position we are now with the Government taxing employers to force them to invest in training?” I think not and I think this is the real issue that the CIPD needs to be addressing not dabbling in politics and scoring cheap points and disappointingly fuelling the “blame culture” that really blights our society.

Take some responsibility CIPD and fix the problem, the government may have some other more pressing things on their plate right now … and throwing rocks at them not in the form of a critical press release isn’t the way to solve the problem of employers failing to invest in the development of their workforce beyond the legal minimum requirement.

Clients of ours have already taken steps to address this challenge by ensuring in the first instance that what is trained is learned and retained. “Guaranteed learning outcomes” is the first step in wooing back the Exco investment and only, proven AI, is going to deliver that. So whilst the CIPD is distracted and blaming everybody else, maybe you take responsibility and prove to your ExCo that it is a good business investment to invest in the development of your employees.

We can help, we are world leaders in the use of AI to augment how the brain learns and retains workplace critical learning, we financially guarantee the outcome and we only talk in facts and numbers - the language if every ExCo the world over. Give us a call.