Companies that invest in employee learning have higher productivity, revenue growth, and profit growth than companies that do not, according to a study conducted by the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD).

At an educational session of the Society's 2005 International Conference and Expo, Brenda Sugrue, PhD, CPT, the senior director of research at ASTD, and Ray Rivera, a research analyst at ASTD, detailed the relationship between building human capital and an organization's growth and financial success.

Value in the session, entitled "The Value of Learning: What the Research Shows," was defined as retention and employee satisfaction, as well as business unit initiative (impact) and program success (return on investment).

Employee satisfaction with opportunities for learning and development is one of the most important predictors of whether an employee will stay with his or her current employer, the speakers said.

The session profiled research conducted by ASTD to show that learning and skill development is critical to organizational productivity, growth, innovation, and competitiveness. Learning, in the research conducted, needed to occur as a separate and stand-alone activity that was not embedded in work activities.

The ASTD research found that, the greater the hours of formal learning, the greater the retention. This, in turn, is a fundamental determinant of customer satisfaction, sales per employee, and market capitalization within an organization. In terms of recruitment, training is one of the top three things people consider when deciding where they want to work.

In Sunday's keynote address, Robert E. Knowling, Jr., considered one of the nation's business leader role models, focused on "Transformational Leadership in the Midst of Change."

Knowling, known for his work as lead architect of the Ameritech transformation, US West (now QWEST), the YMCA, and the New York City Public School System, talked about the importance of considering the types of leaders within your organization and how you will build and support those leaders. In his theory about building transformational leadership in a time of change, he says that choosing the best leaders and supporting them in the best way possible is inherent to the success of any organization.

Monday's keynote speaker at the conference will be Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, speaking on "Principles of Leadership."