More with less: how to optimize your budgets for better training?

You don't need a huge budget to train, you can often do more with less...

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In 2023, the question of the training budget is a real issue. From large corporations to very small companies, companies all have the objective of optimizing their spending. But as annual performance reviews approach, how do you respond to the ever-increasing number of training requests from employees? In this article, we will try to answer the challenge of doing more with less.

Overworked training teams

According to the barometer of the digital learning figures of the ISTF, 15% of training teams lack budget allocated to the development of the offer and 35% lack time or staff to develop digital learning in their company.

However, 72% of digital training content is currently produced in-house! This is a long process, costly both financially and in terms of time for your teams.

These figures speak for themselves : the modes of training are evolving but the means to follow these trends are still fragile. If teams are short on time but create the training content themselves, how can they keep up?

With economic uncertainty looming over companies, French executives are concerned about a backlash against :

• flexibility (82%)
• work/life balance (82%)
• skills development (83%) (according to the LinkedIn 2023 barometer)

And yet, skills development is among the most engaging and important factors in attracting and retaining talent. It is therefore clear that retrenchment is not a viable long-term solution. This is why it is necessary, as a training manager, to change your business and your offering to meet these new time and budget challenges.

Solutions for every budget

No matter what type of training you offer in your company, there is always a way to optimize your expenses while watching your ROI grow.

Consolidate training requests as much as possible

Have you noticed that some of your training courses are recurring, involve multiple business units and have already been recommended by past learners? Wonderful news! Opt for a training catalog that covers this topic and will be accessible to a wide audience! You can buy pack of licenses to benefit from a discounted price.

This solution does not suit your budget? You can also organize a single session gathering all the interested parties to avoid repeated travel and accommodation expenses.

Still not getting it? Then try having a single learner take the training and relay their learning to their peers. Be careful to ensure the quality of the training, but collaborative learning is proven to be more engaging than with an external trainer.

To go even further, you can take advantage of similar training needs between different companies (subsidiaries, partners...) to negotiate better rates with a provider.

Maximize the use of your tools

Most training solutions on the market have a fixed training catalog, often not able to adapt easily and quickly to sudden changes (environment, crisis, trends...). However, things are changing fast. The lifetime of a skill today is only 12 to 18 months! Your learners will not see the point of following the training courses offered on your tool if it does not adapt to their needs...

To be truly attractive to them (and therefore engaging), your tool must be able to cover the maximum of their needs. Whether it's the diversity of themes, ease of access or simplicity of use, these factors are essential to ensure the long-term functionality of a solution in your offer. But more than anything else, the content catalog must be able to evolve to keep up with your challenges and therefore be based on existing content to gain in responsiveness!

The augmented training team

Lack of time is one of the main obstacles for training managers in developing an offer. In addition, not everyone has the expertise to meet the needs of each employee. Today, it is essential to take advantage of opportunities to extend your training service: either through AI-type tools or by using external educational experts to delegate this work and gain in time and quality.

Of course, the solution must be included in the initial training plan so as not to create unnecessary costs. But by making the right choice, you can address the needs of 90% of your learners by adapting to all profiles!

Finally, online tools can also help you to automate the administrative management of your training courses and thus save time for your teams to focus on other, more profound subjects.

As you can see, every company can optimize its budget to succeed in training its employees whatever the context. Since training is an absolute necessity, the adjustments that need to be made to achieve it are only one step towards the learning organization you wish to build.