10 WAYS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR TRAINING BUDGET: How to get more bang from your training buck!
By Michael Davis
Published on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 under Change & Creativity, Management / Supervisory Skills
Let’s be real. Money is tight right now. One of the first things businesses cut back on during times like these is training. So how do you run a business that depends on training with a smaller budget? The answer to that may surprise you!
For the last couple of years, we’ve been mesmerized by expensive training tools. We’ve been led to believe by ‘training industry gurus’ that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on high-tech simulations, learning management systems, and extensive (cumbersome) training design processes is the way to go. We’ve read training industry newsletters, magazines and have listened to the leading experts. But we all seemed to forget one thing. All those guys are trying to sell something.
Honest question from a business owner: “Why won’t anyone tell us how to get good training that’s cheap?”
Honest answer from a Training Guru: “Because then you wouldn’t buy any more of our books or expensive training toys.”
“Right now, we don’t have a whole lot of money to throw at expensive training. But we still have a need to keep our employees trained and ready to do their jobs.”
Sound familiar?
There are things you can do to offer engaging, relevant, applicable and inexpensive training to your organization. Here are ten ways to maximize your training budget.
#10: Build and utilize a corporate library full of books, videos, training programs, etc. Share it throughout your organization. Everybody keeps books in their office. Why not share them?
#9: Utilize the Workforce Investment Act (Government Reimbursement for Conducting On-site Training). Your company can be reimbursed for conducting on-site training.
#8: Buy Pre-existing computer based training courses. Don’t waste time designing computer-based courses. There are literally thousands of computer-based courses on hundreds of topics. Shop around. You’ll find what you need.
#7: Use resources you already have that no one thinks to use. (Saavy Gen-X’ers and Millennials can use PowerPoint and Excel to create life-like simulators. Use ‘fake’ accounts to train people on systems. Use empty offices, public parks, etc to conduct off-site training. There’s more, but you need to go to my session to get the rest of these ideas.
#6: Use Podcasts and YouTube to spread your message. It’s free and easy.
#5: Send individuals to public training sessions. Not all training has to be ‘sanctioned’ by corporate headquarters. There are hundreds of public training sessions going on right now in your city
#4: Out-source common training topics like soft-skills and basic computer software training. Don’t invest time in designing it yourself. There are tons of companies out there that can get you training faster and cheaper than a full-time trainer. Use your trainers for designing customized or functional training.
#3: Train workers to be facilitators. A “trained” trainer is much more effective than your resident “expert”. So teach your resident expert how to train.
#2: Combine training efforts with teams across your organization. There is probably another team or individual in the organization that needs the same thing. (Or at least one part of the same subject. Put them together.)
#1: Share training expenses with neighbor companies. I’ll bet the company across the street needs some of the same training you do. It can’t hurt to ask. Especially if they aren’t a competitor.
During difficult times it’s important to continue developing your employees. However, in doing so it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg if you're creative.