The Business of Training

What are those things in your training business (university, division, unit) that you believe will help you achieve a successful outcome to your business strategy? They may be related to cost reduction, corporate objectives, new technology, process changes, etc. What will help ensure your success? They may be unique to your training business or new products for your customers. The standard things for a successful training business are adequate capital, cash flow, good employees, and customers. These are not the success factors for your business - they are the result of your success factors. Again, you need to establish the key success factors that will complement your business strategy. What gets the customer to choose your product and - call you ; browse your web site; meet and buy from your sales person; or come into your training center?  Call Me! Success Factors fall into several categories : Set realistic business objectives and goals Understand your uniqu...

Job Performance - R. Hibbard Job performance is based on several factors.  All of the factors must combine to achieve optimal performance from an individual. Training, education, and feedback are critical components to high performance individuals.  Keep in mind that job performance and motivation is just as applicable to the hourly employee as it is to the CEO.  Everyone has a boss, even the CEO - the Board of Directors.  It is the bosses job and the company's job to ensure that employees are challenged and motivated.  Absolutely not in a negative way, but in positive ways that encourage creativity and high performance.  In the 21st Century Company if the job can be done by computers or robots then that is the path that should be taken, since there is absolutely no way that you can keep people motivated and excited in monotonous, repetitive jobs.  There are still jobs that are currently too difficult to automate and special attention mu...

When doing a Cost Benefit Analysis for training and education programs there are many factors that result in benefits and economic returns.  Some of them are: Labor Process efficiency Sales Management Time-to-fix Vendor costs Up-time Marketing costs Delivery efficiency Headcount Competitive advantage Market share OSHA  (USA or local equivalent) - work safety agency EPA (USA or local equivalent) - environmental protection agency Where are the benefits in each of these? LABOR - Typically there are efficiency improvements.  Do job better,quicker, less headcount. PROCESS EFFICIENCY - Same here; more product, less waste, quicker change-over, quicker start-ups, etc. SALES - more, higher margin, new market, customer satisfaction MANAGEMENT - fewer, can do more, better direction VENDOR COSTS - reduced through close project management, purchasing supply management better prepared DELIVERY EFFICIENCY - could be in terms of delivery type chosen (e-learn...

Back in 1999 The Jack Philips Center for Research coined the term "The ROI Process" (TM) .  It was, and still is, a comprehensive methodology for capturing ROI as well as the measurement of all aspects of the benefits of training (learning or performance) interventions.  See The Four Evaluation Levels for Training Programs for additional insight. In The ROI Process there are five levels presented.  ROI being a separate level from the traditional levels presented by Dr. Donald L. Kirkpatrick.  Dr. Kirkpatrick included ROI in level four known as Results , because ROI is one of the measures of the final business results such as increased sales, reduced costs, etc.  In my opinion, ROI is really a nice 'business' way to summarize your investment in the training intervention. However, common sense must be enlisted when, and if, you decide to establish the ROI of a learning event.  The cost of determination can exceed the benefit! The organizatio...

Training is a flighty business.  Technical and educational training groups from one person to corporate universities are often pressed to justify their existence by management teams.  These same management teams are often demanding more training for sales, technical, executives, IT personnel, etc.  This blog will attempt to address this issue and many others over time.  Stay tuned for relevant and practical information on subjects from how to run The Business of Training  to how to justify training programs and all the tools needed.  There will be quality links to information sources and must have support groups.  Whether you are a one person group or a corporate university you will find information to help you run your training business.