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This year you’ve got a training budget. Lucky you!
But
it’s only enough to make you tear your hair out!
How
can you make a big impact with a limited budget for developing
your staff?
Well,
here are some thought-starters:
Firstly,
make sure that the budget you’ve been set is REALLY
all that’s available.
There’s
always something else that is more important to management
than how much you can spend – the trouble is, they
don’t know the implications of being stingy on the
money front. It’s not as important to them as it is
to you.
However, work with them on this issue. Empathise with the
budget-setter about his budget dilemma and reassure him
that you are both working toward the same end goal –
a productive team that is trying to achieve business objectives.
You can then explain the consequences and long-term side
effects of the implications of cutting the training budget.
Make sure you’ve got all your ducks in a row here.
You can quote figures to determine the effects, but do your
homework first. It will sound like you’re just whinging
if you complain without essential back-up information.
If that still fails, discuss the situation with your training
team and plan how you might be able to achieve a higher
figure. Others may have ideas that you hadn’t considered.
Let’s assume that there’s no change, and you’ve
got to live with it.
Then, just as when running a home with a limited budget,
you’ve got to become creative and determine priorities.
One area you can look at is how communication with staff
occurs at the moment.
Maybe, through a co-ordinated corporate communications plan,
you can all come up with ideas that would be of benefit
to the training receivers.
You could decide to train a small number of ‘key users’
of information to be mentors to others and have them cascade
their knowledge.
This means a change of process for many, and a different
training approach – mentoring needs a whole host of
different skills. However, it could provide you with assistance
from unlikely sources.
Aligned with this, consider using more one-to-one coaching
with personnel who really need it.
Link with line managers to pinpoint specific people who
would benefit from receiving such coaching and develop their
skills quickly.
This might provide specific impetus to back up your request
for more funds as managers see the benefits for each member
of their staff.
Try distributing the training and reference materials that
have already been printed to departmental managers or designated
expert coaches with a short "managers as leaders guide"
to support management in their departmental tasks of implementing
training.
Middle managers could distribute self-help materials at
the staff meetings. For instance, user manuals, check lists,
job aids, FAQs etc. could be analysed and adapted to provide
on-the-job learning as necessary. It’s not ideal,
but may assist in developing skills on a short-term basis.
Focus on training options that don’t involve a traditional
classroom setup (e.g. virtual classroom) and therefore don’t
require the usual logistical expenses.
Get together with the IT department in your business to
discuss the feasibility of electronic learning as an addition
to any planned training.
Putting learning materials on the intranet or by using desktop
learning might help some who either don’t have time
for training away from the job or don’t see the benefit
of it.
Check out the new methods of training that can provide excellent
learning opportunities in much shorter time periods.
For example, many companies have incorporated accelerated
learning techniques, along with NLP technologies, to drastically
reduce training times.
We have been able to take 3 or 4-day courses and seen radical
improvements by incorporating new strategies into one or
even half-day programmes.
Feedback from these types of workshops has been excellent.
Delegates save time while learning more in their own learning
style, and you save money by reducing the amount of time
everything takes.
Ideally the budget should be set against the achievement
of business objectives.
The cost to the company of replacing employees unable to
adapt to new processes or ideas because of lack of training
can be extremely high.
Analyse your priorities. Become creative in what you run.
Re-think what methods you can use in people development.
A limited budget makes you become more creative by necessity.
But it doesn’t mean you have to lower your standards.
By ensuring you still contribute to business objectives,
you provide a foundation for increased funds when they become
available.
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