Every manager has a duty to develop their people.
Most managers commit to give people development a permanent spot on their daily to-do list. They know that a growing team is a motivated team, and although the payback may not be immediate, it has to form an important part of their activity.
The problem is that they rarely make the most of the time that they spend doing this.
It is shocking when you consider how the majority of budget holders source training.
In fact, there are few things on their to-do list that will be less well executed.
In a business environment where busy managers need to optimize their every deed, the majority are simply not aware of the intricacies of sourcing training for their people. Quick search on Google, scan of someone’s website, brief negotiation and job done….
It is a nightmare for an HR department that gets grilled on their ROI.
These line managers might hold the budgets, but training sits very firmly in the orbit of the HR department. It is in their interest that processes are streamlined and costs are minimized.
Centralising the organization of training is currently a trend in HR for exactly this reason.
Apart from the obvious benefits of cost and efficiency, this gives the L&D team an overview of the appetite for training across the whole organization, how it is being serviced and where it is proving most effective. It is far easier to measure suppliers when there is a bigger sample size, and eventually this can lead to rationalization with only the best going on to train the next tranches of employees.
If training spend is centralized, you have subject matter experts in charge.
This isn’t purchasing a piece of technology, office furniture or sandwich. If you get training sourcing wrong, the negative effect on the participants is undeniable.
However, HR don’t have the bandwidth to do it all themselves.
That is why training outsourcing is experiencing such a boom at the moment.
When we source training for our clients, we ensure that they still have a direct relationship with the providers – balance within this three-way communication is key. It is vital to have one-to-one contact before the training delivery, as this is where genuine value is added, but we take over all the activity where we can suggest outcomes rather than ask questions.
Just because it is outsourced, it doesn’t mean that you lose control over matters.
When an organization decides to centralize their training organization, it is almost impossible to do it properly themselves. If they do decide to take on an external partner, it is important to understand which parts of the process that they can be entrusted with and which parts need to be a collaboration.
When you centralize an HR process, it is useful to work with a partner who can share the learnings of multiple other clients. We share the best practices and everyone wins.
If you want to take control of your people development fate, I’d be happy to have a chat and discuss how we work. Contact me today on 0845 519 7408 or email blake.henegan@optimuslearningservices.com
