International Human Resource Management-MJ Version

In terms of differences in training between the countries, a simple measure
is the amount of the labour budget that organisations spend on training. This
too varies considerably between countries; France generally has the highest
spending in this area. French taxation penalises companies that do not spend
just over 1% of their labour budget on training and French companies gener-
ally spend considerably more than that. Figure 7.5 shows that, if we compare
the proportion of organisations spending more than 5% of their pay bill on
training, it is in Sweden and France that the most organisations spend this high
amount on upgrading their staff. In contrast, organisations in Spain have the
lowest levels of such spending. Again, this needs to be set into the national
context. For example, the roughly similar proportions of organisations with
high spends on training in Germany and the UK may have different impacts if
the general education levels of employees in one country are significantly
above those of the other country. In such a circumstance, the training may be
developmental in one case but remedial in the other. This is perhaps a
simplistic means of assessment (measuring the value of the training would be
much more useful than the cost of it), but it does indicate significant national
differences. Further analyses can be found in Estevez-Abe et al. (2001); Ryan
(1991); Steedman and Wagner (1989).
We have noted that the influence of trade unions in Europe is high; this is
despite the variance in trade union membership amongst European countries.
Indeed, generally the unions in Europe have a more positive ‘partnering’

186 International Human Resource Management

FIGURE 7.5

19%

9%

33% 36%

18%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Germany Spain France Sweden UK

Organisations spending more than 5% of their wage bill on training (Survey
1999/2000, Cranet network 2002)