What is a Training Agreement?

As an employer you want your employees to reach their full potential. The more productive and engaged your staff are, the more profitable your business could be.

A way you can help staff achieve this is to offer training and development opportunities. These will help your employees to learn new skills and gain experience in new techniques. 

But how do you train employees and encourage them to stay with your business? We’ve put together a small guide to training agreements that you can offer your employees. 

What is a training agreement? 

Ultimately, the more you train your team members, the better they will be able to perform in their roles. While this can have some significant benefits for your business there are also some disadvantages you should be aware of. High-quality training is expensive and there is always a chance that employees may leave after completing it. 

You shouldn’t let this stop you from ensuring that your employees get relevant and up-to-date training. As an employer, you can implement a training agreement with your employee. 

This is a legally binding document that outlines the terms and conditions of the training you will be giving your team. 

The agreement will also state how much the training costs and who will be responsible for covering the costs. Your training agreement will specify the repayment plan if an employee leaves shortly after completing the training. You should also outline in your training agreement if you plan to include training deductibles from your employee's final pay slip. 

These inclusions in written documentation will give you premium protection from any potential litigation that could arise.

How to create a training agreement? 

A robust training agreement will help you protect your investments. Without one, you could pay to train team members who then end up leaving your business soon after. If they do, you’d then need to start the process again with their replacement. 

When you are putting together your training agreement consider the following. 

• For each training and development opportunity you provide, create a new agreement. This will help you keep the information in them up to date. 
• Make it clear what the terms and conditions of the training agreement are. 
• Ensure that it’s signed before any training courses take place. 
• State what event will trigger the repayments. For example, if your employee resigns or if they’re dismissed. 
• State if you are implementing a sliding scale for repayments. For example, if the employee stays with you for a set period of time before they leave, they will less back. 
• If the employee owes a small amount, say it will be deducted from their final salary.

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