When Talent leaders invest in training they expect skilled employees and measurable ROI. Instead, they get employees who forget most of the content in just 24 hours, despite $98 billion annually in corporate training investment.
This isn't a content quality issue, and it’s not a motivation problem. It happens because most training ignores how human memory works.
Human brains simply forget most new information they receive—and quickly. It’s called the Forgetting Curve. The steepest decline happens after just 24 hours, the day after the training session they sat through.
Most training design ignores this basic cognitive science. It's time to stop throwing so much of the budget at training that doesn’t lead to lasting behavior change. Instead, start investing in methods designed for the way human brains learn.
The Science Behind Learning Loss
Way back in 1855, Hermann Ebbinghaus quantified just how quickly people forget. People retain only 56% of new information after one hour, 36% after nine hours, and a mere 21% after 31 days without reinforcement.
170 years later, cognitive research still confirms the Forgetting Curve. Memory needs time and repetition to stick. The biological processes that create lasting knowledge simply can't happen during one-and-done training events.
Traditional training approaches often end without means to reinforce the learning, falling victim to the Forgetting Curve. It's like planting seeds and never watering them.
The Hidden Cost of Forgetting
The financial impact extends beyond wasted training budgets. The lack of employee development shows up throughout the business. Gallup estimates that low engagement cost $438 billion in 2024, with much of that due to managers who were not being developed properly (State of the Workplace).
It doesn't matter if you're training compliance officers or factory supervisors, sales teams or software engineers—without repetition and practice, most training content is forgotten in just 7 days.
The general lack of training measurement makes this even worse. Just one-third of companies track the business impact of training. Without tracking what happens after training ends, organizations continue investing in approaches that don't work. This creates a vicious cycle: wasted budgets lead to skepticism about training investments, which leads to reduced support for learning initiatives, which perpetuates unchanged behaviors and persistent skill gaps.
The Science of What Actually Sticks
The solution lies in what Ebbinghaus called the "spacing effect"—distributed practice over time produces dramatically better retention than concentrated sessions.
Activity-based, on-the-job learning, where practicing new skills is spaced out and continuous over time, creates a spacing effect. It's an opportunity to drive real behavior change.
Context creates stronger memory.
When employees practice new skills in their actual work environment, the brain forms richer associations and deeper memory traces. The spacing between practice sessions allows for the biological processes that create lasting behavioral change.
This aligns with the 70-20-10 learning principle, which recognizes that 70% of workplace learning happens through on-the-job experience rather than formal training sessions.
Hundreds of experiments have shown significant memory improvements when using spaced versus massed practice. Short, frequent interactions with new concepts, applied immediately in real work situations, create the repetition and context that memory requires.
The brain doesn't distinguish between "training time" and "work time"—it simply responds to consistent, meaningful practice.
Building Memory-Friendly Learning Systems
Organizations that work with memory science rather than against it can transform their entire approach to skill development.
Instead of pulling employees out of work for training events, they embed learning activities directly into daily workflows where practice happens naturally.
Here's what happens when you move learning into the flow of work:
- Simple activities reinforce learning in the flow of work, actually changing behavior. Activities can be short—less than a minute to understand—but then applied same day, providing the practice that builds habits. Rather than comprehensive training sessions followed by months of nothing, fight the Forgetting Curve with bite-sized, on-the-job activities.
- Talent leaders get new measurement tools to prove the value of training. Focus these activities on a measurable outcome that matters to the business: safety audit success rates, improved mortgage renewal rates or meetings booked, etc. The learning that matters is the kind that shows up in changed work habits and measurable business outcomes.
- A new opportunity to personalize training opens by tailoring activities for each learner. Using new software tools and generative AI, it’s possible to scale training personalization in brand new ways, driving increased engagement, and improving each employee’s skill to make a measurable impact on the business.
Making Memory Your Ally
Organizations that leverage memory science can achieve a training advantage. Better for employees and the business. Win-win.
When learning integrates seamlessly into work, skill-building becomes continuous rather than episodic. Employees develop habits through authentic practice rather than artificial scenarios.
Knowledge sticks when it's immediately relevant and repeatedly reinforced.
The Forgetting Curve isn't your enemy—at least it doesn’t need to be. Leverage this cognitive reality to redesign training to be more effective in real life, not just to check the right boxes. Stop fighting human memory and start designing learning experiences that work exactly the way the brain learns best. Get more out of your training budget.