In addition, a strong focus on learning and development can help increase staff engagement and staff engagement. If a training agreement has the practical effect of „capturing“ an employee in their current role, it may be considered unenforceable. Properly executed, training agreements are a completely legal and appropriate way for companies to protect themselves financially. However, if you decide to place one, there are a few things to watch out for. The purpose of training agreements is to protect companies from loss when they invest in their team. This is not a tactic to prevent people from stopping. This is the reason why the amount of money that the training contract must recover must be an appropriate estimate of the money lost by the company. If the cost of the course is relatively low, the training contract could come from the employee`s last salary. If it`s more expensive, employers could establish a more structured payment plan. The second thing to think about when using training agreements is the idea of „trade restriction“. As I said, training agreements are supposed to protect companies from losing their investments – but the law will not allow an employer to use them to prevent someone from changing jobs inappropriately. But if that employee stayed two years after the course ended and is training every day, then £2,000 is not a reasonable estimate of how much money the company has really lost.
In that case, it wouldn`t be appropriate to use a training contract to try to get the full £2,000 back – and most likely he wouldn`t be legally successful. But important for employers, it can also be used to determine when a worker might be responsible for reimbursing these training costs and how that reimbursement would work. In particular, it can determine whether these costs become reimbursable when an employee leaves the company shortly after the end of the training. Let`s take a look at an example of a training agreement in action. If a company were to spend £1,000 on a training course, but the employee resigned the day after the course ended, it would be fair and appropriate to ask the employee to repay the £1,000 as part of a training agreement. Before sending their team for training, many companies ask their employees to sign a training contract that makes them the responsibility to repay any investment in their training if they leave before a certain period. However, if the training contract is properly drawn up, it can reasonably be expected that the employer will pay a certain share of £2000. Not only will your company not benefit in the short term from the training it has paid for, but it would end up paying again for the same training if it started a replacement again.
Take into account the stuck costs inherent in any recruitment process and you can see how this could put a small business in a really difficult position.