Many smaller Irish companies still consider employee training and development to be a cost rather than a strategic investment, Dr Thomas Garavan, lecturer in training and development at the University of Limerick, said yesterday.

Speaking after the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in Ireland (CIPD) annual strategic training and development conference, Dr Garavan said: "I would safely conclude training is still perceived as a cost and that it's a dead cost in that they don't reap anything from it."

He said those involved in training needed to educate all of their stakeholders on the merits of training and needed to emphasise training as an investment.

"But it will take time for that to happen," he said.

Dr Garavan was officially introducing CIPD Ireland's national survey, which he co-wrote with Ms Noreen Heraty, lecturer in human resource management and training and development at the University of Limerick. He also said trainers did not perceive e-learning to be as effective as some of the more traditional methods of training or team-based training.

While the internet and e-learning was not a panacea for all training needs, particularly in skills training, it was very effective in transferring knowledge, said Mr Aidan Lawrence, development manager at Hewlett-Packard.

"The internet is very good in getting a large scale message out to people very quickly and giving people an understanding very quickly. In the past, you would have to rely on cascading it through the organisation. It's also becoming incredibly cheap," he said use of e-learning in training and development at Hewlett-Packard improved performance and accelerated the rate of employee development, while at the same time reducing duplication and overhead costs through the standardisation of its business processes and training portfolio, he said.

Effective training and development could be used to support culture change and change attitudes within an organisation, said Ms Bernadette Breen, senior manger, global HR solutions at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"If you make a genuine effort to communicate with staff, looking at what their roles should be, assess their needs and provide them with some solutions, most people would respond to that and feel more positive, loyal and committed at the end of it," she added.