Retailers flexed their training muscle this year, with Dollar General Corporation, LLC, earning the top spot on the 2019 Training Top 125, and Best Buy ranking third. Leading Real Estate Companies of the World (#2), Nationwide (#4), and BNSF Railway Co. (#5) round out the Top 5.
Some 28 new companies broke into the Top 125 this year. The majority of the companies are in the business services, finance/banking, health/medical services, insurance, and IT/technology industries.
Here are some overall statistics from the quantitative analysis of the winning 2019 Training Top 125 applications:
- The mean revenue was $9.7 billion U.S. and $12.2 billion worldwide. The mean training budget was $25 million, representing 7.34 percent of payroll. The mean amount of training cost savings was 13 percent.
- The mean number of total employees trained per organization (including independent contractors and franchisees) was 38,704, with 19,828 trained in the classroom and 56,548 trained online. A mean of 631 courses were offered as instructorled sessions; 7,860 were offered as online self-paced modules; and 155 were offered as virtual instructor-led classrooms. All but one of the 2019 Training Top 125ers have a technology infrastructure.
- The average number of full- and part-time trainers was 137 and 269, respectively.
- Some 95 percent of Top 125 winners have a tuition reimbursement program. A mean of 11 percent of eligible employees made use of tuition reimbursement programs in the last year. Median spend on tuition reimbursement programs was $205,248.
- Some 98 percent of winners use employee satisfaction surveys, while all use competency maps and personal/individual development plans. Some 75 percent tie managers’ compensation directly to the development of their direct reports.
- On the evaluation side, 86 percent of applicants utilize Return on Value; 94 percent utilize Return on Investment; 78 percent utilize Balanced Scorecards; and 67 percent utilize Six Sigma. The Kirkpatrick Levels of Evaluation are more widely used: Level 1 (99 percent), Levels 2 and 3 (100 percent), and Level 4 (98 percent).
- The average length of employee service was 7.4 years, and the average turnover rate was nearly 20 percent.
- Internal candidates filled a mean of 35 percent of job openings, while employees referred a mean of 22 percent of new hires. The median number of new employees hired was 20 percent of the organization’s workforce.
Congratulations to all of the 2019 Top 125 winners! Click here to see the rankings. The March/April issue also has augmented reality-enhanced pages where you can see videos about the Training Top 125 and Gala, courtesy of our partner, BundlAR. You’ll find instructions on downloading the app here, plus more cool things you can do with AR here. We hope this augments your Training magazine experience!
