Recovering Training Costs from employees

James Fairchild
Member - 217 posts

Its certainly worth a try to introduce it at any time, however you can bet that (when a resignation happens) the employee will argue that the document cannot apply retrospectively!

Is the course something that the employer can readily use elsewhere (truck driving licence for example) or is it something that is very specific to your company (for example an internal company values course with a senior manager in your global head office)?

Linda Battye
Member - 5 posts

All of the courses we send our employees on are useful for use elsewhere, for example, cherrypicker licence, confined spaces certification, NEBOSH etc..... Some are needed legally for our line of work and some are not a necessity but useful in our line of work but are equally as useful to use in other workplaces.. If I do devise some sort of form or document for the employee to sign would he/she be within their rights to refuse to sign if the course is part way through? As far as I am concerned it shows committment on both sides but I am not sure that certain employees would see it that way..

Lisa Dormon
Member - 15 posts

Linda, we have these "Training Reimbursement" forms at my company. But we also have a section regarding this in our contract of employment.

The reimbursement for the cost of the training drops by a quarter every six months. So if you leave between 6 months to 1 year after completing the training you have to repay 3/4's of the cost. I specify completing, because some training courses paid for by my employer are things like Marketing Diplomas, and they take a year or more to complete.

One thing you will want to watch is the reimbursement. I'm not a payroll expert, but I do believe there are only certain things that can be deducted from someones pay. We specify on the form they sign that it will be deducted from their pay, so they know about it, and again in their leaving letter we mention it.

We don't do a great deal of external training, but of those I have had about 70% leave regardless of the signed form.

You might want to think about differentiating between Essential, which isn't deducted, and Optional/Personal which are.

kieran dowling
Member - 2 posts

Be careful about charging for H&S training in relation to statutory requirements as Section 9 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act expressly prohibits it.

Phil Lemon
Member - 46 posts

For us this is enshrined in our employment contracts which has a sliding scale of repayment with the % depending on the length of time after the course up to two years.

Henry Mooney
Member - 4 posts

When I studied for my NEBOSH and Diploma qualifications in H&S, I was required to sign an agreement that, should I move on within two years, then I would be liable for a percentage of the course costs, depending on when I left. This policy had been in place for many years, and still is.
Accreditation (and re-accreditation) training in issues such as manual handling etc is also paid for by my employer to maintain my ability to deliver in-house courses, and no charge is made to an employee who undertakes such courses.

les potter
Member - 23 posts

if a company is willing to invest in people and train them proffessionally to carry out a task at a higher and better standard, i think i is only reasonable that the indiviual should contribute the cost of the course should they decide to leave within a 12 month period, that being said if the employer at a later date within this period decides to terminate the contact of employment with the person, they should NOT repay anything, as they have not been allowed to complete the term of the agreement. this is for training only that is outside of the training that is expected as an employees right.