Tax dept staff are HM's biggest e-learners HMRC staff took more than 615,000 e-learning courses last year... HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is making more use of e-learning than other departments, according to a report by the National Audit Office. The document says the NAO estimates that HMRC spent £96m in 2010-11 developing the skills of its staff. Most training …
If its assumed that average HMRC employee pay is circa £25K pa, that's a salaries bill ALONE of, at least, £15,375,000,000 pa. Given that these are not the total number of HMRC employees AND the assumed salary figure does not include cost of employment (employer's / payroll tax, pension contribution and other 'on-costs') its an even more staggering figure being expended out of the public purse...
So how come, with the computerisation of HMRC, it still allows that number of people to be employed? Where's the cost-benefit?
And how come, with that number of people, hardly anyone seems to answer the f**king phone?!?!
Could it be that they're, mostly, are "doing training" and shouldn't it be training about tax rules and calculations, rather than the rather nebulous "eTraining"?
"Although the department is doing much to make sure it has the skills it requires, it needs a more systematic approach, where spending on skills is linked explicitly to the organisation's overall business objectives and a vision of how it should look in the future."
Means, many staff take courses because they get dinged at reviews if they don't, or...
staff take courses that are useful CV material.
Doesn't matter - it's only taxpayers' money, after all.
Maybe they are trying to e-learn how not to make mistakes.
'08/09 - They refunded me £80.
'09/10 - They said I'd underpaid by £35
Then I decided to rejoin self-assessment and for '10/11 they have refunded me several hundred quid but left a charge of £35 on the books.
I suppose I shouldn't complain - at least so far it's been in my favour overall :D
How much of that training is actually required as opposed to done for the purposes of the pointless end of year review?
There's loads of e-learning available at the organisation I work for, it's just a shame none of it covers in any depth the areas of the main system my team uses meaning we're having to figure things out as we go along. Despite repeated requests for proper training none has been forthcoming.
The HMRC e-learning packages are pretty poor and tailored to the in one ear and out the other approach.
Whenever my colleagues have a new e-learning module then the tendency is to take the text option, print it all out and take it from there with pacesetter meetings full of complaints about poor training
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