Imagine…you’ve just managed to save the training budget for this year. Although it’s been cut 25%, you were able to convince your boss of the need to maintain training, especially in economically challenging times. Now, working with 25% less, you have to implement training to address the concerns of several departments: Jennie, the customer service manager, wants her 25 reps trained; Bob, the IT manager, wants IT training for his department; Clarise, the administrative manager, says her support staff desperately need email business writing help. How can you service Jennie, Bob, and Clarise? What can you do to meet everyone’s needs on a limited budget?

The scenario mentioned above is all too real in today’s workplace, but with some creativity and a good training company willing to work with you, you can pull it off. Here’s how.

Assess the specific training needs of each manager; in our case: Jennie, Bob, and Clarise. Use this fact-finding assessment to identify the specific job performance skills each manager wants addressed. For example, it’s not good enough for Jennie to simply state, “My people need customer service training.” What kind of customer service training? What kind of skills do they already have? What are Jennie’s performance objectives for her department? What kind of training have they had in the past?

Assign a category to the training needed. Can it be provided on an informal or formal basis? Can you use an in-house trainer–someone from the department with that skill set, or will you need an outside trainer? Can you provide any part or all of the training online?

Address the cost involved to provide the training. For example, once you have determined that providing Jennie’s customer service training is most cost-effective utilizing web-based training, figure out what it will cost per employee. While conducting your research keep in mind that a reputable company should:

• Charge no more than $25 per employee
• Charge on a monthly basis (allowing you to stop and start on-line training at your discretion)
• Be able to build or customize training content to meet your on-going and ever changing needs

Further, let’s assume that you’ve determined Clarise’s e-mail training request would benefit all three departments. In this case, you want to bring in a trainer, and you want to stagger the training days to enable all employees to attend. Negotiate with the training company to give you a full day of training split over two days for one price. For instance, if the company charges $3,500 for up to 40 employees, get the company to come in two half days. This option allows you to send 20 people to training one day and 20 the next day. Let’s not forget Bob, the IT manager. You find out from Bob who are his brightest team members and suggest using them to teach their other team members. Perhaps Bob feels uncomfortable with that solution, so you suggest he send one or two of his brightest and best to an outside training session then come back and teach the rest of the group. This option will keep your training costs down and morale up because Bob’s employees can now see a way to increase their value to the company and to themselves. Others on Bob’s team benefit from learning from co-workers, and they, too, see the company in a favorable light — one still willing to invest in their employees!

Analyze/Action involves analyzing all possible solutions and then taking action. So, let’s wrap this up and see how you’ve met everyone’s needs on your limited training budget:

• Web-based Customer Service training for Jennie’s 25 reps totals $4,000: One-time set-up fee for unlimited monthly web access: $1,500 (This is an average. Some companies may charge up to $2,500). $25 per employee per month fee to access web-based training ($25 x 25 = $625). Jennie’s reps need three months ($625 x 4 = $2,500)
• On-site E-Mail/Business Writing training for Clarise’s team is $3,500: Two four-hour training sessions for 40 employees, which happens to include Clarise’s team, Bob’s team, and Jennie’s team
• Outside training session for Bob’s two employees who will, in turn, come back and teach/train their colleagues is $1,118: One day of training @ $399 for two employees = $798; paid time off for two employees @ $20/hour for 8 hours = $320

Summary: For $8,618, you’ve given each manager the training they’ve requested to grow their departments, increased the overall value of the organization to your customers, and… you have $1,382 left over for pizza! Remember, with a little creativity, the right training company, and a willingness to look at different options, you can assist each department in meeting their training needs!

Happy Training!