Do you know or can you point me in the direction to get information regarding money spent on training? Basically I just want numbers I can throw out when I’m pitching new biz like “the top 100 companies spend 1000 per employee per year on training” or “for a company with 100 employees or less you can expect to spend x”…
Yes, I can.

The article below is from a new report (released in Feb) looks good. The attachment is interesting. Let me know if you want anything else!

This is older, but worth a glance:

Corporate Learning Budgets Rising, But Salary Spending Remains Flat, Says Bersin and Associates February 15, 2007

The corporate learning market continues to grow, with company budget increases averaging 7 percent, according to the Bersin and Associates’ 2007 Corporate Learning Factbook. Total training spending grew from $51.1 billion in 2005 to $55.8 billion in 2006; spending on products and services grew from $13.5 billion in 2005 to $15.8 billion in 2006. While budgets have increased, salary spending over the last four years has remained relatively flat.

In 2005, 73 cents of every training dollar went to payroll expenses; in 2006, payroll expenses were 65 cents of every dollar.

Other findings from the study include:

• Learning technologies are widely used by companies of all sizes.
• Almost 60% of respondents use virtual classroom technologies, 40% have learning management systems, 25 to 30% use application simulation and rapid e-learning tools, and 14% use learning content management systems.
• The average spending per learner is $1,273. The highest spending sector is technology ($2,763) and the lowest is retail ($519).
• When it comes to learning programs, sales training and management/supervisory training are the program priorities for most learning organizations.
• Outsourcing continues to grow, with highest planned increases in custom content development and LMS hosting.

Bersin & Associates claims the study is the most detailed and up-to-date view of corporate learning and development available. Said Karen O’Leonard, research director for the study, “Our rigorous research methodology, combined with the extensive survey database we have built over the last few years, gives us a unique ability to quantify key metrics and provide fact-supported analysis of important trends.”

A loyal reader asks: Does anyone go to the library anymore?

Oh reader! As huge library fans, we hope so.

Here’s what we learned.

Pew Internet (we love those guys!) just came out with a new study. Evidently, of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, Gen Y-ers (18-30 year olds) are the biggest users. Shocking. The study said that compared to the older folks, Gen Y members were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose. And these young adults also say most frequently that they will use libraries in the future.

This is a good sign for libraries.

Read the study. You’ll see that computers are a huge part of the library experience these days. No big surprise. But still, we at Scherer Cybrarian love libraries and were excited to see that the trends are positive. (Note: Our local library is always packed. So anecdotally, we felt good about this already!)

Another dataset to consider:

The first annual report on the State of America’s Libraries, the American Library Association says:

• Almost 90% of Americans are satisfied with their public libraries. Most agree that public libraries are under-funded and need more support.
• Libraries are keeping up with the times—and with the public’s needs.
• Libraries are experiencing great local support and are growing and adding services and enhancements, including serious connectivity. State funding has decreased, and the public support has made the difference.
  
• 1.8 billion visitors checked out more than 2 billion items from U.S. libraries in fiscal year 2004.
• Circulation and participation at American public libraries continue to rise.
• Almost 2/3 of Americans have a library card.
  

A loyal reader asks: What do you think of Rachel Ray? Is she a force of good or evil?

We love the answer from the July-August 2007 Shopper Report
by Mona Doyle

Rachael Ray is empowering some shoppers to cook with more freedom and have more fun than they have had in some time. Watching her facilitates a certain amount of abandon in mixing flavors and using hunches and appetites to direct kitchen behavior.

What she is doing is changing cooking from tedious work to play! With apologies to the memory of Julia Child, there are similarities in their empowerment of women in the kitchen. Julia empowered women to understand how difficult recipes worked and gave them the freedom to try them, understand them, and depart from them and still turn out wonderful foods. Rachael Ray communicates the pleasure of cooking from your head and your stores, your fridge, and your pantry. Some retailers are playing into this, helping their shoppers be better cooks by providing “ingredients for your next inspiration”–I’m quoting myself there, but that is what I see happening, with sauces and mixes that are almost magical in their ability to help consumers create wonderful smells and tastes with a dollop of X and a few spoons of Y.

Wegmans does an especially good job of this with products like “Mirepoix” which it offers in several package and chunk sizes. Mirepoix is nothing more, or less, than diced onions, carrots, and celery–a combination which forms the basis of much French cooking. Add a package to a can of soup or sauce and create wonderful flavor and an aroma that equals fresh bread in the oven.

* “I think Rachael Ray is bringing fun back into cooking.”

* “I don’t think she is making people more casual about cooking, but getting more folks into cooking because she makes it casual.”

* “I am a huge fan of hers, and simply put ……… she is easy to relate to, because she is NOT a chef, and has a spirit about cooking, and a reality about cooking that brings the ‘ease’ of creating a 30-minute meal (I am not that quick) to the table that is delicious and eye appealing. Her meals are made with a common household kitchen flare, and ingredients accessible at any and all local markets. No gourmet here.”

* “I think her show is proving that you can have a decent meal on the table in 30 minutes or less. With so many women working these days, this show has a great impact on those of us that put in a full day working.”

* “She IS fun and casual. My feeling is that she is not too uptight about it and should be helping people, especially a person newly on his or her own.”

Full bibliography for this article: Mona Doyle “Rachael Ray’s impact”. Shopper Report, The. July-August 2007. FindArticles.com. 31 Oct. 2007.

See back issues and sign up for the Shopper Report RSS by going here.

A loyal reader asks: How big is identity fraud online, what are the trends, and should I be concerned?

There is a lot of info out there on this. But here’s a great synopsis by the nice folks at ITFacts.

3.7% of Americans were victims of identity fraud in 2006

Approximately 500,000 fewer adults in the United States fell victim to identity fraud in 2006 than in 2005. Of America’s overall adult population, 3.7% were victims, as compared to 4.0% in 2005. This demonstrates a continued year-over-year decrease since data was first collected in 2003 when 4.7% of the adult population was victimized. In terms of total dollars, identity fraud in 2007’s report dropped by an estimated 12% over the previous year, from $55.7 bln to $49.3 bln. New account fraud dropped from 1.5% of all respondents in 2006 to one% in 2007. When fraudulent accounts are opened, many victims caught the fraud more quickly utilizing online channels, such as the viewing of statements, resulting in average fraud amounts dropping from more than $10,000 in 2006 to $7,260 on average in 2007.

The overall adult population of the United States reported a fraud rate of 3.7%. Younger adults between 18 and 24 reported a much greater incident rate of 5.3%. Additionally, more than half of these victims reported knowing their perpetrators, which could include friends, neighbors or in-home employees, as compared to just 23% of overall respondents, Javelin says

***So consumers are getting smarter, financial institutions and others are improving their services in this realm. Overall, things are getting better.

Should you be concerned? Of course! Be careful. Purchase from reputable companies. Protect your information. Install a firewall if you don’t have one already. Change your passwords regularly. Don’t use obvious passwords. Be smart. One great service we use is one-time credit card numbers. They’ve been around for a while – but many people don’t know about them.

A reader asks: I’ve been pondering hair. It’s so weird, hair is. Dead protein. That’s all it is. Do you know how much money is spent each year trying to get you to spend your paycheck on products to make your dead protein look better? Me either. But I bet it is a lot. How about a ballpark figure here?

First of all, ad spending on hair care products is expected top $1 billion this year, according to Advertising Age. That’s a lot of advertising.

U.S. Shampoo sales were up 0.7% to $620.3 million for the 52 weeks ending Sept. 10, according to Information Resources Inc., Chicago. Meanwhile, sales of conditioner were up 3.5% in supermarkets to $360.3 million for the same period.

My favorite quote from the research “Hair care was flat for a while” okay, I thought it was funny.

One more piece of info:

According to IRI, hairspray sales in the US were about $367 million last year and US gel and mousse sales were $581 million.

Add them all together? It’s almost $2 billion a year. And this doesn’t include hair color. That’s $2 billion on its own.

(And AdAge estimates the ENTIRE hair market at $8 billion, but that includes unmeasured channels, which always makes me go hmmmm….)

A reader asks: I was following a blog on Carepages where this guy had some pithy quote from pop culture almost every day. No one remembers all those lines! How can I be as cool as Steve?

Oh, reader. You probably can’t be quite as cool as he is. But here are some suggestions…

Check out Quotegeek. Very fun.

We ran a search on HOPE. Found these (among others…)

Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
Movies > The Shawshank Redemption

Gloria: Joanie, you are now a world-class hopeless romantic.Joan Wilder: No, hopeful. Hopeful romantic.
Movies > Romancing the Stone

Man can’t help hoping even if he is a scientist. He can only hope more accurately.
Love Against Hate
Personalities > Karl Menninger

For you patient searchers (you know who you are!) try Fagan Finder’s Quote Search. Here there are 20 or 30 different quote search engines to try! It’s hard to imagine you won’t find something good here.

We’re always looking for great research quotes. We know. It’s not the most fascinating subject to everyone. So as an experiment, we tried some of the engines…

From Quotez

Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.
Wernher von Braun

From Board of Wisdom

one of our all time favorites (you may have heard this from us before!)

Copy from one, it’s plagiarism; copy from many, it’s research.
Wilson Mizner

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
Albert Einstein

From Said What

Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.
David Ogilvy

Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind.
Marston Bates

And if you’re more in the mood for a good cliche, check out Cliche Finder.

Until next time!