Does Disclosure of Employee Training and Development Costs Affect Organizational Performance?

Abstract

In human resource management literature, there is exclusivity of empirical studies assessing the extent to which disclosure of employee training and development costs affect the performance of organizations. Predominantly, most studies in human resource management literature had focused on how employee training and development affects organizational performance; however, a gap exists in the literature on the disclosure aspect of the costs of employee training and development, particularly in the Nigerian context. Thus, the study employed a dissimilar approach in assessing the disclosure of employee training and development costs and how they relate with organizational performance.  Data were gathered from twenty-five publicly quoted Nigerian service firms from 2012-2021 and analyzed via descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive results showed among others that a large amount of organizations are yet to incorporate the disclosure of employee training and development cost in yearly published report. Also, fixed and random effects panel data regression result indicated that disclosure of employee training and development costs do affect organizational performance significantly. Given the findings, it is recommended that while organizations management should invest in employee training and development, they should as a matter of fact, adequately disclose the associated costs on employee training and development in yearly published report.  This would accord organizations disclosing employee training and development costs, the capability to have a viable workforce and influx of well skilled and promising employees that can pursue the performance-oriented goals of the organization.