“We don’t want to just sell a course; we want to change how people work.”

This statement from Clair Henshaw, Manager of Pitman Training Manchester, cuts to the heart of what’s wrong with most workplace training today. Her comment came during a recent Greater Manchester Health Care Workforce Summit, where she met with over 100 NHS professionals struggling with a common problem.

The Troubling Reality of Workplace Training

The numbers tell a sobering story. Only about 25% of business leaders feel confident that their skill-building programmes improve performance. Worse still, just 10-20% of development investments create lasting changes in how staff actually work. 1

Why such poor results? The culprit seems to be what Paul Lewis, Managing Director of Pitman Training Group, calls “compliance-focused employee development” – training that exists primarily to tick regulatory boxes rather than truly help staff improve.

We’ve all sat through this type of training. Those forgettable health safety modules, GDPR refreshers, staff dutifully complete these sessions, promptly forget most of the content within weeks, then repeat the cycle next year.

One NHS learning coordinator at the summit told Henshaw bluntly: “We’ve become experts at proving our staff attended professional development, but novices at proving the instruction made any difference.”

For cash-strapped organisations like the NHS, which spends millions yearly on employee development, this reality hurts. It wastes resources, money that could serve patients more effectively.

What Works: Training That Changes Behaviour

What separates effective training from the box-ticking variety? According to Henshaw, “Effective behaviour-changing professional development starts with a fundamental shift in mindset. Rather than focusing on what people need to know, outcome-driven courses ask what people need to do differently.”

This approach reshapes how training gets created, delivered, and assessed:

Focus on practical workplace applications
Every module, exercise, and assessment links directly to tasks people actually perform. Lewis offers an example: “For someone interested in NHS administrative staff, our Medical Secretary Diploma includes modules on medical terminology, audio transcription, word processing – preparing students for tasks they’ll encounter in healthcare settings.”

Deliver real career advancement
Participants should finish with skills that genuinely advance their career prospects. “Power BI came up again and again, during a recent NHS event,” notes Henshaw. “A Power BI course shouldn’t just teach data visualisation; it should equip employees to become valued analysts who can interpret complex healthcare metrics to inform leadership decisions.”

Create clear progression paths
Good courses map directly to job roles and promotion criteria. Our diploma programme prepares participants for roles such as Medical Administrator or Healthcare Assistant, with potential progression to Practice Manager or administration management positions within the NHS.

Real Results, Not Just Certificates

When training moves beyond compliance-checking to genuine skill-building, organisations see real benefits:

Staff become more productive
People equipped with relevant, applied learning contribute more effectively to their organisations. “Manchester quadrupled the amount of Excel instruction for the NHS in 2023 2024,” reveals Henshaw. “I wouldn’t immediately think of Excel for the NHS, but looking at the data, that’s what it shows.”

People stay longer
NHS trusts implementing detailed career development programmes report retention rates higher than sector averages – quite valuable for addressing NHS staffing shortages. 2

Internal leadership grows
Building capability from within reduces recruitment costs, keeps institutional knowledge intact. One NHS department manager noted: “We’ve seen people go from admin to analyst after completing this course. They return with capabilities that immediately impact how we track patient outcomes.”

Time to Move Past Tick-Box Training

The feedback Henshaw hears repeatedly across all sectors sounds simple yet profound: good training saves people time and boosts their confidence.

For public sector organisations with perpetually stretched resources, this difference matters greatly. Financial investments in staff development should yield clear improvements in service quality, operational efficiency, and staff capability. 3

Workplace training never stops at a certificate or an attendance record – It culminates in transformed capabilities, better performance, and stronger organisations. This means making a choice to either keep purchasing learning that merely satisfies compliance requirements or invest in the difference and instruction that genuinely changes how people work.

Pitman Training offers staff upskilling programmes designed to deliver real-world results for your team. With flexible delivery options, outcome-focused design, we help organisations build the capabilities needed to succeed.

Sources:

The Training Associates, “Why Training Programs Fail” – https://thetrainingassociates.com/why-training-programs-fail/

Healthcare Management UK, “Staff Leaving NHS Lowest in Decade” – https://www.healthcare-management.uk/staff-leaving-nhs-lowest-decade

HFMA, “NHS Efficiency Map” – https://www.hfma.org.uk/system/files?file=nhs-efficiency-map-updated-january-2017.pdf