The hidden cost of one-and-done employee training

Many business owners invest heavily in employee training but see little long-term improvement. Joining us on today’s episode of Strategic Edge is Founder of The Abraham Group, Jay Abraham, to explain why traditional one-time training programs often fail and how continuous, process-driven learning can help businesses develop stronger teams and achieve sustainable growth.

According to Abraham, he draws a sharp distinction between what he calls “event training” and “process training.” While event training packs critical knowledge into a single day, process training mirrors how the military trains soldiers, pilots learn to fly, and doctors develop clinical skills, staying progressive, repetitive, and continual rather than a one-time event.

He cites research showing the average person retains just 9% of what they experience in a linear training environment, a figure that drops further when material feels unfamiliar. Additionally, he contends that businesses can only push retention toward 25% or 30% by progressively repeating material over time, much like a child learns to walk or ride a bike through repeated attempts rather than a single demonstration.

Stay involved after training 

Abraham says many business owners hand off responsibility once they’ve brought in an outside trainer, then consider the job done without defining what the training should achieve or verifying employees retained it. He compares the pattern to watching a quarterback play an NFL game and assuming that alone would prepare someone for the pros.

Leaders need to set clear outcomes before training begins and build in repetitive checks afterward, according to Abraham. He also recommends pausing during sessions to have employees explain back what they learned, since people process concepts differently and instruction can drift off target, much like a message garbles as it passes down a chain of command.

Abraham cautions against assuming that a candidate’s past success will automatically transfer to a new organization. He points to his own career, describing how he built a media operation into tens of millions of dollars in sales at one company, only to struggle at another that lacked the infrastructure to support him.

Business owners often judge candidates solely on results achieved elsewhere without factoring in the systems and support behind those results, Abraham says. He recommends evaluating whether a candidate actually grew a business through a similar stage of development, rather than assuming someone who ran a $100 million company can replicate that success at a $7 million company without the infrastructure to back them up.

Reduce organizational risk

Abraham advises training more than one employee in any critical function. If a single trained employee leaves, gets promoted, or becomes unavailable, the business faces a gap and has to start over. He recommends documenting processes across a range of scenarios so operations don’t depend on one person’s institutional knowledge.

Abraham says businesses often train employees on product knowledge while neglecting the interpersonal skills that drive sales and customer satisfaction. An employee might know a product’s specifications well enough to explain why one item outperforms another, he says, but without training in listening, consultative selling, and trust building, that employee may never identify what a customer actually wants.

Abraham describes his approach as “leverage on leverage on leverage,” breaking skill development into layers that include strategic communication, empathy, and authority without arrogance. Each added layer multiplies an employee’s effectiveness, and the same principle applies to collaboration across a team.

Ultimately, Abraham frames people development as a leadership responsibility that scales with a company’s growth, since the skills needed to run a $2 million company differ from those needed to run a $10 million company. He calls human capital the most underutilized asset for small and midsize businesses and concludes with a reminder that every business owner serves as a leader, regardless of team size.