Save Money On Training And Stay Within Budget

So many training programs are like ivory towers - expensive pieces of nothing. Here's how to get your money's worth.

Easy as pie, so you think. Cut costs to save on money. Then show the figures to the Big Kahuna and gloat on your savings. But sometimes short cuts can lead to financial catastrophe. You don't get what was intended after all. Or they prove to be more costly in the long run. How about these ideas instead for real savings on training?

Live training sessions. You're dealing with adults, not pre-schoolers - we learn through putting theory into practice. A good instructor would be able to create a program in which participants can ask questions and learn at a speed most suited to them, while spotting the challenges along the way. You may get all those bells and whistles from DVDs, CDs and online learning, but that often doesn't work in the long run. Remember that you will be paying for the participants' salary while in training, so ensure that trainers can create results and motivate participants to make the money worth it.

Get help from outside. They can give you an unbiased and refreshing outlook on work-related issues. They are free of prior encounters with your staff. Their view is on the macro, rather than micro side of things, meaning they see things as the rest of the world generally sees it. You don't want a jack of all trades, master of non-type for this job. Ideally, choose one who has written books or published articles.

Accountability counts. Work with the instructor to develop a review and reminder process. Plan follow-up sessions to check on progress applying new techniques. Ask staff members to choose among several changes that could take place, and how they are to take place. Then follow-through again - how is everything going so far at certain points of the review? Learning should be a staple of performance reviews.

Support learning. No learning or training session is complete without your buy-in. Attend classes. Take what you have learned outside of the classroom. Encourage others to apply the new skills and reward those who make a special effort to do so. Instead of watching your staff dawdle away at non-work-related sites, have them visit websites or read articles that are related to the training program. Your work culture should be geared towards learning as the path towards corporate excellence.

Choose wisely. Match the type of program with desired skills. Employees can be trained through high-volume tutorials (50+ yearly sessions), routine procedures or proprietary operations. Look for those programs that can actually help your staff meet company objectives. The training program you buy should encourage employees to push the envelope with practical skills rather than fact-based teaching that is better suited to K-12.

Read our complete review of 30 second smile and zeta clear and learn the facts.