The people

The training/HR department controls 58 percent of traditional training purchases, according to the report. That's followed by senior management (13 percent) and the individual learner's department (11 percent). Don't try to compare these figures with last year's report, however, because this year we asked respondents to identify the purse string holders for both traditional- and technology-based purchases. In the past, we simply asked who was responsible for the overall purchases of training. For years, we've heard talk about the role that cross-functional teams or committees play in formal training purchases. Well, the data would indicate that these teams seldom control the training purse strings. Training and HR professionals control just 56 percent of traditional training purchases for companies with 100 to 499 employees, compared to an average of nearly 65 percent for companies with 500 to 10,000-plus employees. By industrial classification, the report found that training/HR professionals are responsible for the majority of traditional training purchases in the finance/banking/real estate/insurance, manufacturing and wholesale/distribution/retail trade sectors.