Investing in Human Capital


Duration

1:06

Release Date

March 24, 2014


Description

Benoit Dostie discusses his knowledge synthesis about the impacts of employer-sponsored training. His research looks at business strategies in human investment, at links between training and an organization’s productivity, and the complementary elements between investments in human, organizational and physical capital. His research synthesis has shown that employee training yields positive outcomes for businesses, and that the benefits outweigh the loss of wages of employees undergoing training.

Read the transcript

Benoit Dostie
Associate professor,
Institute of Applied Economics


Benoit Dostie: So our Knowledge Synthesis Grant project focuses on the impact of employer-sponsored training on a company’s productivity and on the complementary elements that might exist between investments in training and physical capital and investments aimed at adopting high-performance management practices.

We find that employer-sponsored training has a significant impact on company productivity—the impact is even greater than on wages [of] the employees who undergo the training. There are also complementary aspects between the investments in training and physical capital, more specifically investments in information technology. This outcome is particularly true for large companies. We also find similarities between investments in training and the adoption of high-performance management practices for small companies.