According to a 2014 survey by Training magazine, the average company spends $1,059 dollars annually to train one employee. Conventional wisdom might suggest large companies spend more on training, but the research discovered that, over the past three years, small and midsized businesses are spending above the average. Either the SMBs are more dedicated to employee learning or the larger organizations have found a way to less expensively train their workers.
Whatever the reason behind the disparity, companies of all sizes are still spending a lot to train their employees. On one level, this is a good thing, because well-trained employees increase productivity. On the other hand, corporate training materials are still an expense that company accountants can easily trim from a tight budget, which can lead to a loss in productivity no matter how much you insist that such a cut would be counterproductive. Going digital with training content can solve this problem; here are three reasons why:
1. No paper to print, assemble, and store
The paper manual: A stalwart of corporate training materials for decades. Whether in the form of a three-ring binder or a premade book, these manuals are familiar to many employees. They are also wildly inefficient and ineffective in today’s business environment. For starters, all the paper involved is expensive to purchase, print, and, eventually, dispose of. With bound volumes, there is a significant cost to produce the content and ship it to stores and offices. Emailed manuals that go in binders still require time to print and assemble. And all this content must be stored someplace—a back office or storeroom better suited for other functions. Tablet-based file delivery software removes the paper element from corporate training materials and puts the content on an iPad or Surface. Less paper equals less time, less fuss, and, most importantly, less cost.
2. Updates are quick and easy
Imagine a bound training manual with one small but significant error—a mistake major enough that it must be fixed. Errata could be printed with the hope it’s somehow added to the guide and actually read. Or, the entire volume can be reprinted and reshipped at an exceptional expense. Printed updates could be added to binders, but again, this takes time many managers simply can’t spare. With digital training solutions, any updates to corporate training materials are easily made: One person makes the fix, uploads the file, and sends it off with a few mouse clicks. The revised content then is automatically sent to tablets throughout the company; employees don’t need to do a thing other than open the file.
3. Quicker training, better learning
Another drawback of printed corporate training materials is that they take time to read—if they get read at all. Employees can easily zone out if you put a couple hundred pages of training procedures in front of them. These same documents on an iPad or Surface are easier to read, can be viewed wherever or whenever convenient or comfortable, and present themselves less like the studying that workers thought they outgrew when they graduated high school. Furthermore, tablet-based training solutions expand the ability to use video, which has been shown to be more impactful than printed content. Employee learning deepens, thus resulting in greater productivity once workers practically apply their new skills—which ultimately leads to a long-term cost savings.
How has your company cut costs with its corporate training materials?
