It’s certainly no surprise to those of us who work in people development to hear that a happy employee is a productive employee. Of course, the reverse is also true: Unhappy employees lead to performance issues, turnover and unmet potential.

Development Dimensions International (DDI) has just released its 2009 Pulse of the Workforce Survey, based on input from 1,000 workers in August 2009. For more on the report, click here, but in essence it outlines “labor lethargy,” with a majority of workers feeling unsatisfied in their jobs and looking to jump ship when the opportunity arises. With signs of improvement on the horizon, those escape attempts could be looming, meaning businesses could go into recovery while fighting a talent shortage.

Let’s look at the numbers:

• More than half of the workers say their jobs are stagnant.
• About 1 out of 3 workers isn’t really there: They just do their jobs and go home.
• When asked if they could “leapfrog” into any position into their companies, 58% would prefer to just stay put rather than advance.

Add that all up and, in the words of the musical, we’ve got trouble my friends. Right here in River City.

While those numbers may not be terribly surprising to training professionals, the call to action is clear. When workforce morale is so low that even personal ambition suffers, then business isn’t meeting its goals to shareholders or to the employees themselves. Success, in other words, is being left on the table.

Fortunately, there is a solution, which is where the training department comes in. Training’s major role in an organization is to align the people and processes, and reports such as these should be seen as cautionary tales. If a company isn’t investing enough in training, or if that investment isn’t being used wisely throughout the organization, then it’s time to metaphorically go back to the chalkboard. Train people not only with what they need to know, but with what they need to grow.

As this DDI data – and many other reports as well – shows, people want to feel respected, valued and challenged. By creating training-rich environments where employees can rise to the levels of their skills, talents and dreams, companies are creating cultures that sustain themselves in challenging business environments as well as in good weathers.

“Companies that have taken their eye off the ball when it comes to their employees will lose good people to other organizations and even competitors,” said Jim Davis, DDI’s vice president of workforce development.

Good words. Naturally, it’s up to individual learning leaders to control the pulse of learning in their respective organizations, just as it’s ultimately up to learners to fully avail themselves of opportunity. As this report shows, a good way to start (and maintain) those connections is by understanding the people you’re training. Success through training trickles up as well as down, so by supporting people throughout the organization, you can create the ground-up culture that embraces learning, rewards initiative and innovation and sustains peak performance.