Employee training is a key part of creating an engaged and healthy workforce. It gives staff more confidence and helps to retain focus and motivation. Training also makes people feel valued by an employer and will improve the experience that customers and clients have with your business. So, it’s an incredibly worthwhile investment. When it comes to delivering management skills training there are two main options – outsourced and in-house – and there are pros and cons to each.
- Accessing expertise. Unless you have the resources to create a dedicated learning team in-house there is likely to be greater opportunity for your business to access a wider range of expertise – and deep knowledge in niche areas – from outsourcing this to a training partner. You could considerably broaden the scope of in-house knowledge and understanding, and shift established approaches and patterns, by bringing in external trainers.
- Well established structures. Especially when it comes to e-learning it can take a lot of time and skill to put together a training course. This may require knowledge of not just the subject matter but the course creation software too. Creating and maintaining an effective internal e-learning programme may simply be too expensive for many businesses. Accessing existing structures and courses created by qualified people can actually be a far better choice.
- Tailoring learning to your business. There is no doubt that the people who will have the greatest understanding of your organisation are those who work within it. So, if you’re looking for very specific learning that relates to your enterprise then this can sometimes be best accessed by opting for in-house. You can also achieve this by collaborating with an outsourced learning partner where there is opportunity to tailor courses and programmes to make them more specific to individual need.
- The necessity of a knowledge base. Learning materials are a crucial part of employee training and it’s just not possible to achieve positive results from a course or programme without providing these to learners. This can have a big influence on whether outsourced or in-house management skills training is the best option for your business. Do you have the time and resources to create an in-house knowledge base – and to update it based on the most recent best practice, law or industry evolution? This could include everything, from manuals and company policies to specifications, reference guides and instruction materials. If this isn’t something that would be a smart investment for the business an outsourced training partner who can supply these materials can often be a better choice.
- Classroom training options. Although in-person training has largely been on hold over the past year it’s likely that this will return in the near future. If this is a priority for your business then the key factor is going to be availability of training space. An outsourced partner may have existing space off site that may work well for training sessions – or you may prefer to host these in-house, either using an internal or external team.
- Cost. Available training budgets should be compared to the options available with outsourced training partners and the cost of time and resources required to set up training in-house. For many businesses it will simply be a better option to outsource all the preparation, knowledge base development and training delivery if this can be obtained at the right price.
There is a lot to consider when it comes to management skills training – the decision about whether to opt for outsourced or in-house will come down to the needs of each individual enterprise.
If your looking for management skills training services, set up a consultation today.
