Training budgets are on the rise. According to Bersin, average spending on learning and development jumped 10 percent in 2014, to $1,004 per employee. Despite this increase, many training managers are still concerned with keeping costs down. Training expenditures plummeted during the last recession, and when companies are looking to reduce spending, the training budget is often one of the first places the bean-counters will look at.
When a mandate comes down to trim your training budget, the first reaction might be to panic. After all, your outlays may already be tight; finding areas to cut costs could be difficult. However, with the right plan, not only can you make the cuts when directed, but you can also save money before that directive even reaches your desk. And in the meantime, that money saved will allow you to do more with your training initiatives. Here are four tips for trimming the training budget:
1. Ditch the paper
The paper costs involved with training employees can be massive. Thousand-page manuals are expensive to print, store, modify, and dispose of. Furthermore, years of research have shown that employees who train via paper-based content do not learn as much. Tablet-based training solutions, in which content is contained upon an iPad or Surface instead of a three-ring binder or hastily printed email attachment, offer a more efficient, less expensive path for your training budget. The materials take up storage on a tablet instead of a room full of wall-to-wall shelving, thus saving money in the short and long term.
2. More self-directed training
Employees aren’t the only ones taking time away from work to train—training specialists and managers must also set aside time and resources to conduct classes and one-on-one sessions. Though this might be part of their job description, too much training pulls them away from other important tasks and/or result in costly overtime. Taking the training specialist out of the training may seem counterproductive, but today’s tablet-based platforms can be just as effective. Employees, particularly new hires, consume powerful training content without constant supervision. And if they do have questions, they can ask or otherwise comment via the solution. With this approach, trainers and managers are freed for other tasks but can easily be part of the process when necessary.
3. Turn to video
Study after study has shown that visual learning is much more effective than written training content. And if your training budget is tight, you want the quality of learning to be as high as possible. Besides improving training effectiveness, video content is simply less costly. With the latest technology, you don’t need expensive equipment or deep technical knowledge to create videos, but instead can shoot them on a tablet or other portable device. Furthermore, younger employees respond to the medium better than they do with words. Their level of learning is deeper, thus creating a better ROI.
4. Impactful training
Training that is less than effective can make any budget seem bloated—especially to execs in other departments looking for ways to cut costs. Tablet-based solutions facilitate impactful training, which results in two noticeable fiscal benefits. First, better-trained employees are more productive employees; they won’t have to repeat training because they don’t understand something, and they more effectively adapt their new skills to their jobs. Second, properly trained employees are naturally more engaged and less likely to leave. Reduced turnover translates to fewer new hires who must be trained, thus translating to a slimmer budget.
What are some of your best tips for trimming a training budget?
