Controlling Training Costs: The Training Program Toolkit

Downturns in our economy over the last decade have prompted companies to tighten their belts and cut back on training, but I’ve been a staunch advocate for companies to not cut training programs when times are tough. Instead, I have encouraged them to either maintain or throw more support toward training to remain competitive in the marketplace. In this post, we take a closer look at the costs associated with training and discuss ways to control them in difficult economic times. By controlling costs, you can still deliver training to your employees thereby making sure your company still remains competitive.

Cost Distribution – More Learners, Higher Costs

When it comes to controlling costs associated with training, you first need to know how costs accumulate. The general rule of thumb is the more people you have to train on a given topic or curriculum, the higher the costs. This is especially true in instructor-led training (ILT). The bulk of your expenses are in training materials development and distribution of those materials and content. If you are fortunate to implement an e-learning model for training distribution into your company, you can dramatically reduce your costs. A post published last year on the PinPoint Performance Solutions Blog compares the cost and benefit to a centralized e-learning distribution model versus the more traditional training distribution model found in classroom instruction.

Shared-Cost Model

Not all companies can afford to implement e-learning however. Some simply do not have the logistics to support such a platform for training. If you must go the ILT route, you can control your costs through a shared-cost model. We often think of training costs being associated with development and distribution, but we often overlook the cost of of training associated to downtime when an employee takes time off from their assigned duties for training. Productivity tends to suffer when they are away from work, therefore a shared responsibility between the employer and the employee is needed to maintain performance in the workplace. To remedy this, encourage employees to attend training on their own time such as evenings or weekends. An alternative would be arrange half-day training sessions where the employee attends training in the mornings or afternoons. This way you can minimize downtime or time spent away from the workplace. A shared-cost model is a fair exchange if the company is fronting all or most of the cost associated with training and the employee is receiving the benefit of increasing their knowledge and skill set.

Leverage Technology

As illustrated earlier in this post, if you have the technology you should take full advantage of it. Adopting e-learning, whether synchronous or asynchronous, will help lower distribution costs. If you can leverage content online and make it reusable, rally around knowledge management practices to ensure learning content is up to date and easily accessible.

Conclusion

Just because times are tough and companies need to watch their expenditures, it doesn’t mean you should sacrifice training. Costs can be mitigated and controlled if you think differently about it, utilize your resources, and partner with your employees to build a learning organization that’s still competitive in the marketplace.

Share and Enjoy: