Newsletter 1: Do you need to achieve more with less?

A guide to getting the most from your training suppliers and consultants

Dear Subscriber

Are you finding you have to make your budgets stretch further this year? Do you have more training needs than you can cater for? How well are you able to support and develop staff in this current challenging environment? Are there lots of changes and ideas but minimal resources to drive them forwards? Are you ensuring that the training you do provide has an impact, adds value and a demonstrable return on investment?

Most importantly, how much are you making of the varied and often free services that are out there?

To save you time and money, our first newsletter, launched to celebrate our 20th anniversary, focuses on just some of the options that you should expect from your training suppliers. These should help you guarantee the best possible returns from any investment you make in training and development.

If you are not asking for or considering some or all of the following, you could be missing out:

Needs analysis

Tick box training gets everyone a bad name. Make sure your supplier is willing and able to take your corporate training needs analysis that bit further. What exactly are the goals you need to achieve? What are the key objectives – improvement, development or maintenance for example? How does your supplier know? What about asking prospective learners to secure their buy-in? Make sure there is at least a pre-course questionnaire, circulated and reviewed by the supplier before the event. What about an on-site meeting to discuss options?

Tailored training is good

How bespoke is it really? How do you know? Has the supplier done sufficient research and taken the time and effort to get to know you, your people, your culture, your language, your priorities? This is all part of the tailored service – you should not need to pay extra for it. And what exactly are you paying for? Are the fees representing quality of service and expertise or something else?

Innovative approaches to training delivery

Shorter courses – expert delivery

Budgets are not just the problem. How difficult do you now find it to release staff for even a day? Experts should be willing and able to package their delivery into shorter, intensive yet participative sessions, run at times to suit operational pressures. This should not cost you extra. To have to pay a premium for lunchtime, evenings or weekends hardly seems appropriate these days when everyone is working together to survive and prosper.

Powerful methods to supplement workshops and courses

Look for the variety of methods suggested. Action learning sets, training of internal facilitators to cascade or provide continuity, guided projects and business challenges are often more powerful than stand-alone courses. They should be work-related and are more likely to deliver sustainable results. These methods should actually cost less than traditional training delivery.

Coaching and Mentoring

Targeted support for individuals and teams, particularly powerful for senior staff, could well be a more cost-effective and results-orientated solution. You may have issues around change management, career development, conflict, team building or effective leadership. Ensure your provider is qualified, identifies key stakeholders, clarifies expectations and boundaries – oh, and understands the difference between coaching and mentoring!

Does the intervention end with an evaluation form?

What are you doing to monitor impact and value? What about the transfer of learning to the workplace? Consider what post-training support is on offer. At the very least there should be free on-line and/or telephone support and email updates for learners for a period, to support their action planning. ‘Virtual at desk coaching’ goes one step further. How willing is the provider to get involved in medium and longer term evaluation and support if you need this?

Your supplier should be designing your solutions around needs and critical incidents. These can be measured afterwards. You need to know if you are getting ROI, and this is feasible for soft skills training, too. Don’t let your supplier tell you otherwise!

Freebies

These days we all appreciate a ‘significant free’. Check what else is included in the fees. Will your delegates receive free journals to encourage reflective practice? What about refreshments provided on workshops – or are you having to organise these? Would you benefit from free advice, articles, checklists and even a complimentary training event now and again?

So… the good news is….

As a client you are in a great place at the moment to ensure you get everything …and more that you want and need from your suppliers. Choose one that makes you and your organisation feel individual, special and valued. Make sure they have a ‘guarantee’ policy, just in case.

You should get a great, long-term productive partnership that saves you time and money and gets the results you need.

Things change. Our free training and development review meeting is for anyone wanting to get the most from their training resources. Just give us a call on 0845 165 6269 or email:
enquiries@trainingtoachieveuk.com

Kind regards

Alison Miles-Jenkins
Managing Director
Training To Achieve ( UK) Ltd