What types of corporate training topics are most needed?

Generally, our company supports employees furthering their education and pursuing training as desired at their own initiative. In terms of in house training, it is limited to talent management for the most part. Subjects where training is needed are mainly around using current and keeping up with changes in technology to include software and hardware.

Topics would really depend on the type of company and its needs.
What industry are you in?
What services/products are you selling to your customers?
Do you plan on changing your business model?

The most basic training would be in software, then in management or interpersonal skills and teamwork sessions.

The main issue is whether or not the company actually views this a productive as many companies have cut back on or not provide many activities for the development of its employees (such as education).

Does a company want to train their employees to sell its products?
Does a company want to develop the skill level of its employees?

A management meeting need to be held and be realistic on:
What are company's goals?
What is it trying to do?

Many senior finance leaders have told us their talent management efforts have focused for the past several years on developing future leaders. As such, their learning and development programs have concentrated on leadership, people management, corporate ethics, interpersonal communications, and related soft skills.

However, these same leaders are coming to realize that such programs only serve a small percentage of the employees in the overall Finance organization. They also realize that, as the role of the Finance organization changes, they need to provide more competency-based functional training so their employees can keep up.

Such changes are being brought about by the adoption of new business models, updates to well-established rules and standards, like recent changes to Topic 606 revenue recognition and the convergence of GAAP and IFRS reporting, the implementation of more complex treasury operations, and so on.

In one extreme case, a publicly traded computer hardware company introduced a new SaaS product to the market. However, the revenue recognition standard for the SaaS product line was so fundamentally different than the company's existing hardware model that the finance team spent months trying to figure out the appropriate standards to apply. During that time several senior finance leaders were replaced as the company struggled to come to a decision. At the end of the day, the company ended up splitting into two publicly traded firms.

Interestingly enough, we are also learning from interviews with Individual Contributors that they want more direction from their managers when it comes to learning and development. They welcome the opportunity to discuss their career goals with their managers then get recommendations that will help them achieve those goals. Indeed, many have even said they like it when their managers assign required courses with due dates because that helps them prioritize their learning objectives and activities. And research shows that open communication combined with a coaching or mentoring approach can strengthen functional competencies and engagement across the entire organization.