The roots of Empulsys are to be found in the approach chosen by most companies, to educate their employees. While both working at consulting firms, the founders of Empulsys realized that the combination of several factors was costing their customers huge amounts in education and training. The period of time between the investment in education and the point at which employees become productive, had become a serious investment risk. An innovative approach was devised to address these issues, thereby reducing both risk and expense for the customer.

Keeping abreast of new tools and techniques, requires a significant investment in research and education. After identifying a training need, most organizations determine who is eligible to attend the training and then send these employees on a course. Training large numbers of people at the same time seems to be more cost-effective. Upon completion of their courses and after an absence from the office for a number of days, the employees usually return to the same work they were doing before the course.

The vast majority of classroom training provides students with a solid, theoretical foundation. Very often, in an attempt to provide what could be regarded as a comprehensive course, more information is provided than necessary. This extra information only serves to overload students and distract their attention from the essential topics. This diffusion only serves to strain the retention of students, which at best is 20%.

To avoid having a purely theoretical training, lectures are interspersed with practical exercises. While these exercises do improve retention, they are usually contrived classroom examples and do not prepare students for the work situation. Practical experience is necessary to give students a taste of what is waiting for them and unfortunately, this is very dependent upon the individual trainer.

Most companies seem able to overlook this issue, finding consolation in the belief that the students will start applying the new knowledge directly, in a new or upcoming project. It is our experience, however, that these projects often only appear months later. By this time, many employees have forgotten what they learned in the course, resulting in the need for a refresher course, or on-the-job coaching.

Only once knowledge is applied in practice, does the employee become productive. Only after the lapse of this long process, does the company starts to receive returns on its training investment. Considering the time span of this cycle, the risk of losing some of the employees before ever receiving any benefit from their studies, is a definite threat.