How to Save Money on Training

1) Use a live instructor. Adults learn best by doing, practicing, and experiencing. Effective instructors customize their programs to meet people's needs, provide counsel on individual challenges, and respond to questions. Videos, CDs, and E-learning are seldom effective for primary learning. Since the greatest cost of learning is the payroll cost of the participants, you want to make sure the program delivers results.

2) Hire external experts. They can speak candidly about crucial issues related to complex work skills. They are free of prior encounters with your staff. And they bring a fresh, outside perspective based on a worldwide view (instead of an internal one). Those who specialize in one skill area have developed extensive knowledge. Ideally, choose one who has written books or published articles.

3) Include accountability. Work with the instructor to develop a review and reminder process. Plan follow-up sessions to check on progress applying new techniques. Ask your staff to select one change that they plan to make and describe how they will apply it. Then monitor the application of changes being made. Include learning as a dimension in performance reviews.

4) Support learning. If you're the boss, set an example of active learning. Attend the workshop. Then use what you learned. Encourage others to apply the new skills and reward those who make a special effort to do so. Also, recommend articles, books, and other materials that support the training program. Create a work culture that recognizes learning as the key to excellence.

5) Buy smart. Match the type of program with desired skills. Use employees for proprietary operations, routine procedures, and high volume (more than 50 sessions/year) tutorials. Select programs that teach skills required to meet company goals. Buy programs that show practical techniques (instead of facts and trivia) delivered by experts who use what they teach.

IAF Certified Professional Facilitator and author Steve Kaye works with leaders who want to hold effective meeting. His innovative workshops have informed and inspired people nationwide. His facilitation produces results that people will support. Call 714-528-1300 or visit his web site for over 100 pages of valuable ideas. Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.stevekaye.com

More resources:

RELATED ARTICLES

A Management Strategy
I witnessed some interesting behaviour from one of our premier management schools this summer. A behaviour that I have since discovered is not uncommon.

Problem-Solving Success Tip: Dont Leave Your Key Stakeholders Guessing
Communicate! Don't leave you key stakeholders guessing.We are generally not very good about keeping others informed about the progress we're making, especially if there isn't much.

What Every HR Manager Should Know About Hiring Productive Employees
The characteristics of job applicants have a strong influence on whether or not they get hired. Their characteristics also indicate the level of their productivity.

Get Meeting off To a Great Start
When asked what part of their job they find a major time waster, many will answer loud and clear..

A Tricky Supervision Challenge
Many managers believe that treating their team members as responsible adults will assure excellent results. The truth is that while this usually is effective, some people need much firmer limits than others to perform their jobs.

How To Own A Business... Instead Of A Job
Every business is run by someone who took on a risk with their time and money. So I believe that person should be rewarded.

Boost Your Leadership Skills Simply By Answering The Question, What Does Our Organization Really...
The difference between leaders is ears. Good leaders not only ask good questions, but they actually listen to the answers.

Your Company Without Training - Any Questions?
Okay, be honest!Are you guilty of sticking in a few boring videos and calling it training?Do you send in your department heads to deliver a few, rushed, canned presentations and call it orientation?Are you then surprised when your new employees don't live up to your expectations, and your employee turnover numbers keep rising?What if you took the time and money that you spend on employee recruitment and put it into employee training? Would it make a difference? Would it be worth the effort?You Bet it Would!!Take, for instance, The Container Store, who has made the top of Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list for the 6th year in a row! In an employee's first year they offer over 241 hours of training, far exceeding the training hours offered by other retail stores. In the next 18 months they are slated to open 5 more stores, creating over 6000 more jobs!More impressively, the retail industry averages 150% employee turnover, but The Container Store averages only 25%!!Learn also, from ACTS Retirement Life Communities, a Continuing Care Retirement Corporation, based in Pennsylvania with additional locations in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.

Are you NICE or do you CARE?
Are you NICE or do you CARE? Most people and most managers want to be nice. After all, it's easier to be nice than to not be nice.

Create Your Methodology Based on a Standard Framework - Part One
OK. So you have decided that your organization has to improve the way in which it works.

The Truth About Performance Reviews
Now that it is January, many of you are putting together, or have just finished putting together your annual Performance Appraisals for your staff. Feedback on performance is certainly one of the most critical aspects of personnel development and one that deserves to be taken very seriously.

Are You A B.O.S.S. -- Boisterous, Omnipotent, Self Indulgent, Sociopath
Boisterous, Omnipotent, Self- indulgent Sociopath. Avoid the B.

Six Reasons to K.I.S.S.
Six Reasons to K.I.

How to Reject a Job Applicant
A Nightmare That Really HappenedOver 10 years ago, when I worked as a manager at a major corporation, I received a call from a headhunter about a magnificent job opening. It sounded like the perfect job for me.

Multiple Channels, Multiple Times
I've just been reading about the frustrations of a Human Resources manager. He's tired of having to answer the same questions about benefits over and over again.

Radical Creativity from Incremental Creativity - large movements from small changes
Positive radical movement is the holy grail of nearly every decision maker. Every CEO wants to radically shift his profit and loss statement into the black, every inventor yearns to find the next killer gadget and every screenwriter wants to make the next significant leap in film.

Can Your Business Run Without You?
If you are a business owner or a business owner to be, let's examine this scenario.Like other people, you are so excited when you first started your own business.

What Consultants Want You to Know (But You Never Ask)
I've been both a CEO and a consultant, so I've seen from both perspectives what goes right and what goes wrong when a consultant comes in to a company. Generally the CEO or the manager who hires the consultant tells the consultant what he or she wants.

Indiscretion Can Kill Your Business
The quickest way to cancel out all the thought, work, energy, time and expense you've poured into promoting your business is with indiscretions. I'm not talking about giving your clients' confidential materials to their competitors, though that certainly will kill your business � I'm talking about the indiscretions that leak out of your mouth, such as: Those inappropriate responses to anyone and everyone within earshot when you are dog-tired and have been up all night trying to meet a deadline.

Results of Poor Cross Cultural Awareness
Results of Poor Cross Cultural Awareness. Having a poor understanding of the influence of cross cultural differences in areas such as management, PR, advertising and negotiations can eventually lead to blunders that can have damaging consequences.