Abstract
Purpose: The analysis of the characteristics of the industrial companies that invest in the training of their human capital in comparison to the organizations that do not train their employees. This characterization is focused especially on the innovative capacity of firms and their technological applications. It also analyzes the factors that determine the likelihood that a company invests in personnel training. Design/methodology/approach: Descriptive characterization of those companies that invest in personnel training, comparing them against those who do not invest in improving its human capital. Furthermore, factors influencing the decision that a company invest in training are analyzed through a logistic regression. Among them we included the intensity of technological usage and the innovation capacity. This research is based on data from the Survey of Business Strategies (ESEE) in 2009, conducted annually. The sample is approximately 1,800 companies, being representative of the Spanish manufacturing sector. Findings and Originality/value: Companies with a higher likelihood of investing in training of their workers are those with a larger number of workers, a higher level of qualification of employees, more stable labor relations, greater participation foreign capital, and also, have a higher level of technological uses, carries more technological partnerships with other organizations and has a more intense innovative activity. Social implications: In the current situation of job destruction and lack of competitiveness of the Spanish industry in increasingly globalized markets, training of workers is seen as the main alternative to increase the productivity of the Spanish industry. This study shows that the industrial structure does not meet the basic conditions described in the scientific literature, in order the companies to train their workers with the risk of exclusion that entails. Originality/value: The study of the characteristics of Spanish companies that invest in training, and the factors that influence the likelihood of this investment, using recent data (2009) with high statistical consistency. There are still few studies that analyze the improvement of human capital in Spain in the current period of economic crisis.
Highlights
In the last few decades, human capital development has become a key factor in the competitiveness of companies (Monreal, 2004; Jeon & Kim, 2012) for two main reasons
PERTOT: Total staff; PRTP: Productivity per employee;PIL0609: proportion of engineers and graduates; USOSTECH: Level of Internet use; INNOVEMPR: Corporate innovation; AID: Research and development activities. In a context such as the current one, in which job are constantly being lost and companies are folding due to a loss of international competitiveness among Spanish companies and the collapse of much of the domestic market, human capital development is seen as one of the few options that could change the course of the Spanish economy
The results obtained in this study show that the probability of companies investing in employee training depends on the total number of company employees, the productivity per employee, the level of qualification of employees, the level of Internet use, business innovation, and research and development activities
Summary
In the last few decades, human capital development has become a key factor in the competitiveness of companies (Monreal, 2004; Jeon & Kim, 2012) for two main reasons. The fact that companies train their employees for their professional tasks shows the value of vocational training programmes in the labour market This last point is relevant in Spain, given the specific distribution of educational levels in the population. It makes employment relationships more flexible, either voluntarily or involuntarily, which forces companies to accept that process and product innovation is of great value to them, as is a continuous process of retraining This constant involvement with knowledge, updating it, and continuous learning again favours the use of workplace training as an essential method to ensure a perfect symbiosis of work and training (Batalla-Busquets, Martínez-Argüelles & Vilaseca, 2010). It is increasingly clear that the main way to increase work productivity in Spain is to improve employees' skills and abilities, in other words, increase investment in the continuous development of human capital. We describe the main results obtained in the study and, we discuss the main conclusions and limitations
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