Essential Guide for HR and L&D Managers on Effective Training Purchases (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hello, my name is Mark Walsh from Integration Training. This is a short video on how to buy training. So this is for anyone who has that job in an organisation. It could be an L&D manager, an HR manager, an MD of a small company. If you're thinking of buying training, the first thing I'd ask is, what's your aim? Get really clear about that. Much as it pains me to say, sometimes training isn't what's needed. Sometimes it's a different reward structure, restructuring of the company. Sometimes it's another kind of learning, so it might be informal learning, coaching, e-learning. There's lots of other ways of learning out there and they all have their different pros and cons. So for me, training with a group is really good for inspiring people, for getting long-term behavioural change, for dealing with emotional issues, for really doing something that Wikipedia can't. For some other kind of more technical training, it might not even be necessary. I highly recommend carrying out a learning needs analysis. There's some good material online about how to do that. Critical questions like, what's the aim? What's the problem you're trying to solve? Also, do the learners want it? This is a really critical one. Sometimes I get brought in to do training and the people, the participants, don't really want the training or see the need for it. If they're not brought in, it's kind of a waste of time for them and a waste of money for the organisation. So are the participants really brought in? Do they want to do the training? Do they see the need? It might be a pre-piece of work to get them to see the need first. The next thing, if you do decide to go for training, all training companies aren't equal. It's a little bit like buying chocolate. If you just get the cheapest chocolate, it's probably not going to taste too good. In my experience, there is some correlation between price and value. They're not 100%. I think it's worth checking out trainers. How can you test them risk-free? I've done, often, coaching sessions or a small half day. Videos can help to get the feel of a trainer. I've done a number of those. I've found those useful. Experience, obviously. People tend to want to ask for industry-specific experience. In my experience, this is a bit controversial. This is overrated. I've done stress training, for example, in all kinds of organisations. Everywhere I go, people say, well, have you worked with this industry before? Because we're special and here's why. While I always learn about that particular industry, say publishing or PR, whatever it is, I also tend to come across the same human issues. I'd say, well, experience is massively important. Industry-specific experience isn't always that important. What's also important is that the provider is a good fit. In this sense, it might be, how do they feel? Do they fit the culture? Do they fit how we do things around here? Some trainers are very slow and relaxed. That might be great for one organisation, but in another organisation that's much faster paced or even another team within the same organisation, they're not going to be a good fit. Remember, it's a fit with the participants, not necessarily even a fit with the person buying the training. Another important thing to think of when buying training is how you measure the results. How are you going to know if this training is successful or not? It's important to think about that way up front. Not just when you do the happy sheets at the end, but way up front. How are you going to measure, how are you going to see if this training is a success or not, which obviously benefits you as the person buying the training because you can say this money has definitely been well spent. Another one is how long will the benefits last? I see a lot of training, people come in, they have a nice time, it's all very happy. However, within a month they've forgotten everything. The measure of training isn't how good everyone feels about it, it's whether you get long-term behavioural change, whether something sticks. When buying training, a critical question to ask suppliers is how are you going to embed this learning? How are you going to make sure that this money we're investing is well spent and that there'll be long-term behavioural change? So I'm aware there's a lot of questions here and that's really the essence I think of buying good training, is asking the right questions up front. So I hope this has helped. I really think it's in everyone's interests that people buying training and training providers are coming together with that sense of a good fit and doing worthwhile work. Of course, if you do want to consider integration training for only training, that'd be great. You can find us at integrationtraining.co.uk or email me, mark, at integrationtraining.co.uk. Thank you.