Three Factors to Consider When Choosing a Training Provider
Date Published: Feb 28 , 2023
Investing in a training partner is a major decision for an organization's learning and development (L&D) professional. Training must fit within budgetary requirements while also skilling up employees in specific aptitudes. A lot rides on this choice. It is a significant cost that directly affects the ability of personnel to drive company outcomes.
Maximize your training ROI by considering these three factors when choosing a training provider: efficacy, trust and foresight.
Efficacy: How to Know if and When Training Works?
Efficacy is listed first because it is arguably the most important. How will a training’s success be quantified? What are the metrics used? When will the evaluation occur?
Not all post-training assessments are equal. Providing tests immediately after a training only indicates what the employee has learned - in theory - following the course. This approach does not assess the very aim of training: how employees are incorporating classroom instruction into their positions for enhanced productivity.
A far more accurate assessment is surveying participants months after training with questions specifically designed to measure real-world outcomes. Ample time will have passed between the training and survey for employees to confidently report on the ways they have transformed taught concepts into enduring habits.
The Priority Management Difference: Four months following a Priority Management training, participants complete a survey that measures the competencies gained and the daily time saved on job duties directly due to the training. This information is inputted into our impact calculator to provide an accurate picture of how the training improved your workforce’s productivity and to calculate the return on your investment.
Learn More: Proven and Effective Professional Training
Trust: Is This Someone Who Understands?
A valuable training partner does more than instruct employees on specific competencies; they understand the daily demands of the L&D leads and work with them accordingly. The entire training process - from communications, operations, delivery, follow-up and billing - is fully aligned and transparent. They also assist their contacts in mitigating training liabilities.
A training lead may have considerable internal exposure when choosing a training provider, especially a new one. There is no room for error in their provider uniting quality instruction with impeccable conduct. The right training partner brings the highest levels of sensitization related to diversity, equality and inclusion to any training or interaction. They also respect other sensitivities particular to the organization, such as proprietary or privacy concerns.
In other words, it is not just a matter of showing up to the training, but how your provider shows up to the training.
The Priority Management Difference: We have provided training for over 40 years. We understand the daily demands on our partners in human resources and learning and development departments. We view this relationship as a true partnership and closely collaborate to manage risk. Our proven record of providing trustworthy service and value-add training to thousands of companies - big and small- worldwide speaks to our credibility as a training ally.
Foresight: Can They Anticipate Trends and Help Us Stay Competitive?
The hybrid workplace, the adoption of AI into workflows, and the embedding of big data intelligence - these factors and others significantly alter the way work is performed across industries. These trends are not on the horizon; they are already here and here to stay.
Consider ongoing marketplace disturbances, and their rearrangement of workforce skills, to be a characteristic of enterprise for the foreseeable future. The resulting big questions for business leaders are:
Which of these business trends will affect my organization?
Which emerging technology will create new positions, require new skills in existing roles or do away with some jobs altogether?