Employees Absent from Trainings? What Now?

I have a pet peeve. It’s the problem of last-minute cancellations and no shows for scheduled training. As an internal organizational trainer, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve planned a program, maintained registration, and planned training (timeframes, activities, supplies, materials, etc.) to accommodate the expected group, only to experience a significant decline in day-of attendance. These include both individuals with the courtesy to cancel, though often with less than 24 hours’ notice, and others who simply don’t show. This isn’t new to the pandemic. Lack of travel time and ease of online access has made little difference in changing this pattern.

While illness, family emergencies, daycare issues, unplanned COVID school days, or an occasional, legitimate work emergency explain a few such absences, I believe many others are simply excuses that reflect poor leadership and a devaluing of internal professional development opportunities. Let’s explore these excuses, what they may mean for leaders, and what to do in response:

Excuse 1: The employee claims a last-minute work priority has come up. I have no better example than an employee who routinely registered for training programs and routinely, yet politely and sincerely, emailed the morning of to express regrets. I came to anticipate this communication when the name appeared on the list and planned my training accordingly. The employee claimed that faculty members had last-minute requests that demanded attention.

We can take a lesson from the Eisenhower Matrix or Urgent/Important Principle, popularized by Stephen Covey as the Time Management Matrix in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Training and professional development fall into quadrant II regarding important/non-urgent activities. We should pursue such activities, and similar activities focused on growth and taking care of ourselves, so that we can maintain effectiveness in our lives, work, and service to others. The employee appropriately planned a quadrant II training opportunity. Then a quadrant III urgent/not important matter deemed “pressing” by others arose that the employee felt compelled to honor.

Some employees miss quadrant II opportunities, like training, to take on the non-urgent tasks before them because that is their nature. Others don’t feel empowered to negotiate with more powerful individuals in environments where the implicit message is that the needs of such individuals are always paramount, regardless of their lack of planning. Either way, leaders must foster environments where employees are so empowered and last-minute work demands are not allowed to interfere with important training commitments and other quadrant II priorities.

Excuse 2: The employee’s manager claims a last-minute work priority has come up. More troublesome than an employee allowing a quadrant III concern to interfere with training is a manager who routinely sends messages, either implicitly or explicitly, that pressing work demands always trump professional development. Managers must manage their anxieties, micro-management tendencies, hectic business pressures, and personal and team time management challenges to not allow the barrage of unimportant, pressing issues to overwhelm long-range and pre-planned activities that will benefit employees and the organization in the long run. Employees, who will abide in the moment, ultimately express their displeasure through decreased motivation and exiting the door at their first opportunity. Managers struggling in this area should seek their own quadrant II opportunities to get training, coaching, mentoring, and, if necessary, support for personal health and wellbeing challenges so they aren’t the barrier to their employees’ growth.

Excuse 3: The training opportunity is viewed as unimportant or optional. Although I may question last-minute cancellations, I appreciate receiving notice. Worse are no shows for which no cancellation notice was communicated. Beyond the lack of courtesy, this sends a message that the training was not important to the employee in the first place. Perhaps they marked their calendar “tentative,” thinking they’ll attend if they feel up to it or nothing else is going on (and something else is always going on). While some individuals may lack drive to take personal ownership of their professional development, I suspect no shows often derive from a dispirited work culture where such opportunities are not considered special and vital to the organization’s investment in its employees. Leaders must put energy around developing employees, encourage them to actively pursue learning, and express righteous concern when they haven’t taken advantage of the opportunities available to them.

Excuse 4: Internal programs are undervalued compared to external offerings. Leaders should encourage internal programs, in part, because they can reflect significant cost and time savings compared to similar programs offered externally. Yet that may be their undoing. I suspect at times that last-minute cancellations and no shows come from a sense that it’s okay to miss because there is no significant cost or time consequence. Similarly, I occasionally observe a participant who is barely present, constantly checking his phone, stepping out to take a call, and missing portions (particularly of full-day programs) to attend a meeting.

Again, internal offerings are being undervalued in the culture. To consider whether as a leader you subconsciously perpetuate this mindset, consider what happens when you take a vacation, attend a conference or external training, or when your employees do. We thrill at the prospect of a much-needed vacation, or the excitement of travel, to a different training vista to escape our daily routine. We wouldn’t imagine cancelling last-minute, or simply not showing, yet treat internal offerings as wholly optional and negotiable. Instead, leaders must promote the unique learning opportunities that internal programs provide compared to external programs. They must enable employees to focus completely on learning during training time and help them manage distractions accordingly.

Excuse 5: Internal opportunities are inferior to external opportunities, attended only by marginalized groups while higher-level employees and superstars receive external training opportunities. Though more thought than expressed, some leaders simply don’t believe certain employees rate consideration for special opportunities. If training is available to them at all, it is only for internal offerings, and it had better be at low or no cost with limited time away from the job. Such employees don’t receive positive messages about the value of training or the value their employer places in them to receive training. When harried by work obligations, they end up cancelling or give only partial attention when they do attend. Leaders might bristle and deny they marginalize anyone or allocate opportunities based on perceived worth. They must take a hard look at how they are differentiating in-groups from out-groups, if only subconsciously, and work to allocate resources to ensure all employees receive appropriate opportunities. They must demonstrate support for all employees and the opportunities they receive, regardless of status or position, which may mean denying external opportunities for higher-level employees when equivalent and more cost-effective training is available inhouse (and they wouldn’t provide an external opportunity for others under similar circumstances).

Why does this issue matter now? Supporting employee development has always mattered, but the pandemic and the Great Resignation have highlighted the narrow margin of error employers have to retain talent. In one survey, two thirds of respondents said they would leave their jobs in the current climate due to lack of training and development. Promoting internal opportunities rather than devaluing them, whether explicitly or inadvertently, will help employers more effectively manage this challenge.