Training & development is vital to the success and growth of your employees. Before, training was just a ‘nice to have’ but nowadays providing continuous training is necessary to keep your business competitive and sustainable. However, statistics reveal that nearly 59% of employees claim that they had no workplace training and most of their skills were self-taught. Also, 41% of employees consider career advancement opportunities a very important factor to their job satisfaction.
But providing training and development can be daunting, especially if you have various departments requiring various training needs. It can become problematic if you do not have a dedicated training department. Addressing the training needs of your employees can be time consuming. The preparation of the training materials alone will eat up the precious time of your in-house staff.
This is where outsourcing to a third-party provider comes into play. Maybe you are having second thoughts about outsourcing training & development. If you are, this article will guide you so you can make an informed decision.
Reasons For Outsourcing Training & Development
- You Have Various Training Needs
- You Rely On Technical Experts For Training
- You Need Trainers Over A Wide Geographical Area
- Short-Term or Temporary Training Needs
- You Have Limited Training Budget
Benefits of Outsourcing Training
- Reduced Training Cost
- Increased Geographic Reach
- Keep Up With Changing Training Needs
- Leverage Cost of Technology
Tips For Successfully Outsourcing Training
- Determine Your Training Objectives
- Adjust Your Learning Strategy
- Decide on What You Are Going To Outsource
- Focus On The Return of Investment
- Be Realistic With Expectations
- Choose The Right Partner
- Ensure Engagement of All Stakeholders
Reasons For Outsourcing Training & Development
While training and development is vital to your employees’ career growth, conducting training sessions can be time-consuming and daunting. You may not have enough resources and manpower to train your employees on a regular basis which is why outsourcing training and development makes sense. Here are some reasons why you should consider hiring a training partner for your company.
1. You Have Various Training Needs
Like other businesses, your company may be made up of various departments each with their own skills and functions. The same is true with their training needs. Your marketing department may need some training on social media, customer engagement, SEO, and others. If you have an IT team, they may need to brush up on the latest cybersecurity threats and best practices. It is unlikely that your in-house team may have the expertise for each skill and function.
2. You Rely On Technical Experts For Training
Just because you have an in-house technical team does not mean they can already carry out training for certain skills and functions. Keep in mind that they were not hired to be training experts. Outsourcing to a third party gives you access to the training experts your organization might be lacking.
3. You Need Trainers Over A Wide Geographical Area
It can be challenging to plan a company expansion or switch to new technology with a broad geographical footprint and you need to customize the training to suit role-specific functionality. By outsourcing, you can successfully facilitate this training burst without having to hire more employees.
4. Short-Term or Temporary Training Needs
It can be disruptive to outsource training for once-off learning and development (L&D) initiatives or temporary training events that can pull your team’s focus away from performing their core duties. Outsourcing training means company deliverables remain intact while training is carried out.
5. You Have Limited Budget
If you have a limited budget, training & development may not be your priority because of some concerns about cost. With outsourcing, you get quality work at an affordable cost. You get access to a subject matter expert without the expensive salary commitment.
Benefits of Outsourcing Training
Outsourcing training offers a wide range of benefits to organizations.
1. Reduced Training Cost
Outsourcing training can save your business a great deal of money. The time you spend developing expensive in-house training can now be invested elsewhere. Outsourced training can reduce overhead costs by up to 70%. It is also estimated that 40% of all training costs are taken up by travel. Outsourcing training can reduce your expenses to almost zero.
Hiring full-time employees to handle your training needs can be costly. But with outsourcing you can get the highest quality training at the lowest cost and on time. You get on-demand outsourcing that offers access to expert training & development whenever you need it.
2. Increased Geographic Reach
It’s hard to develop a mastery of every aspect of training across the company when you are operating in a geographically-dispersed environment. Training needs, compliance, and regulatory aspects of training vary from country, region, and continent. Outsourcing lets you work with companies who know compliance and regulations in the country where they operate. This means that you don’t have to word about staying compliant.
3. Keep Up With Changing Training Needs
Training is a dynamic sector and it’s hard to keep up with the changing training needs. Things like regulations, certification requirements, and training technologies are constantly changing. Your in-house team may not be able to cope with such changes. They keep on updating and revamping their training manual and the next time they change the manual will make it outdated and irrelevant.
4. Leverage The Cost of Technology
Working with an outsourcing company will allow you to utilize their tools and technology. The outsourcing company makes use of cutting-edge technologies such as cloud, advanced analytics, and more. These technologies will help you attain digital transformation faster which is necessary for today’s digital age.
Tips For Successfully Outsourcing Training
It is worth noting that outsourcing training is not for everyone. It offers a wide range of benefits. However, it is not enough to just outsource it to an outsourcing provider. There are certain factors you need to consider to ensure success.
1. Determine Your Training Objectives
What do you aim to achieve from the training for both the trainer and the participants? By establishing a training objective, the participants will be able to know what they need to do or understand.
Your training objectives should focus on the course you want to create, your reason for creating it, and what you want the learner to achieve. To maximize your outsourcing partnership, you need to set clear expectations and objectives from the onset. This is crucial when different teams work on different portions of a project.
Finally, you should always determine the ways you can monitor and measure the success of the work that the outsourcing provider accomplishes. Be sure to discuss with your partner ahead of time to ensure that all the aspects of your learning and development projects are aligned.
2. Adjust Your Learning Strategy
Take a look at your current training strategy. Determine whether it’s time to make adjustments to it. You may still be using the traditional form of delivering training which may not be applicable at the present time.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations in just about every industry have had to adapt their training methods. Companies that relied on instructor-led training now have a large number of employees working remotely. Now, they are looking for a more cost-effective method to replace their former training programs.
You may have the latest set of training and development tools but are you able to use them often and use them effectively. Updating to a better version may entail more costs but will keep you current with your training & development tools. Working with an outsourcing provider will help you assess whether you need to adjust your strategy.
3. Decide On What You Are Going To Outsource
There are many aspects of training and development that you can outsource to a third party so you need to decide which one you want to delegate to an external provider. For example, you can have them create the content for the training manual or handle the seminar for technical development.
When deciding to outsource to a third-party provider, keep in mind that you do not have to outsource everything. Outsourcing is not all or nothing. It’s okay to be cherry-picking the aspect of training you want to outsource or keep in-house. For instance, you can handle the training of managers and senior staff and allow the outsourcing company to handle the rest.
By choosing what tasks to outsource, you can have flexibility while retaining some control over your own operations. A good outsourcing provider understands this and will work with you to find a solution that matches your requirements.
4. Focus On The Return of Investment
Perhaps one of the biggest causes of concern for you is the cost of outsourcing. However, focusing on the cost will limit the project’s potential. It will result in the acceptance of a low-priced quote and a sub-standard course that will most likely not deliver on your training objectives.
It is much better to look at the return on investment instead of the cost. Consider how you will measure success and what the success will look like. It will give you a much clearer idea on what you should be aiming for should you decide to outsource. Focusing on the return of investment will provide you with a justification for the expense of a training course.
Calculating ROI of the outsourced training will help you track the effectiveness of the training and the value of the training to your staff. The return of investment generated by the outsourced training will help you assess whether your staff has gained new knowledge and skills. It will also help in the measurement of training costs against the benefits to both the employee and the organization.
5. Be Realistic with Expectations
When outsourcing, it is important to be realistic about your expectations. It can be easy to get carried away and excited knowing that some tasks will be offloaded from you. When your hopes are high, it can be easy for you to get lost in the magic of the moment. You run the risk of having your hopes dashed when your initial expectations do not meet the reality of your situation. In an “expectation vs reality,” scenario, we lose motivation and feel like we cannot trust our own judgment.
One example of a common wrong expectation is when businesses expect outsourcing to be a quick fix to their company’s problems. Outsourcing can help you solve specific challenges but only if you have a clear map of your objectives upfront. It’s alright to have big dreams but you should set sustainable and actionable goals. Don’t expect too much from the outsourcing company and yourself from the get-go.
A successful outsourcing partnership takes time so don’t expect it to happen in a snap of a finger. Celebrate small wins. Give praises for a job well done. Set yourself up to realize the maximum benefits of outsourcing.
6. Choose The Right Partner
Working with the right partner is crucial to the success of outsourced training. Finding the right outsourcing partner is not easy so make sure you take your time. It can be worthwhile speaking to more than one company so you can compare quotes, capabilities, and service offerings. Choosing the right partner makes all the difference in the success of your relationship.
Make sure that the partner you will choose maintains high quality standards and has worked on similar projects before. When choosing an outsourcing provider, consider the following:
- Their years in business
- Size of their business
- Number of employees and offices
- Industry experience
- Previous projects they have worked on
Also, check out the website of the provider. See if they have infrastructure and safeguards in place. Do they have the technical knowledge, qualified staff, and procedures to handle your project?
7. Ensure Engagement of All Involved
Another crucial factor that contributes to the success of outsourced training is fully engaged staff. They need to be engaged in the process from beginning to end. This can prove a challenge but they need to be engaged or else problems will arise. Staff can make changes in the process depending on their taste or style preferences.
The opinions and insights of your staff are incredibly valuable in the early stages of planning and development. The organizational goals of the staff need to be transformed into an effective strategy development. Whether it’s the employees, customers, suppliers, or other staff, their unique perspectives matter in the success of the organization.
Many projects fail to live up to their potential because staff engagement was not recognized as an integral part of the process. Allow adequate time and planning to incorporate the opinions and views of all staff. For staff engagement to succeed, they need to have full understanding of the development plan.
Training & development is integral to the growth of your employees. Thus deciding to outsource such a function requires careful planning on your part.
Why Should You Outsource Training & Development to airisX?
By outsourcing to a leader like airisX, you will be able to scale up quickly by getting the right resources, processes and technological infrastructure. No matter what your scaling requirements are, airisX will give you the best optimized solution and you will be able to focus on satisfying your customers. Your back office operations will be simplified, giving your users a high-quality experience.
airisX is your collaborative partner, not just a vendor of services. We offer transformational growth through our highly skilled architects and innovators. Our success is measured by your growth and not our revenue numbers alone. Learn about our proven track record.
Contact us at contact@airisx.com for your outsourcing needs and we will get back to you with solutions tailored to your needs.