The Business of Learning

At the beginning of each calendar year, my staff and I take out our crystal balls to make predictions for how we see the training market evolving in the next twelve months. What I thought would be helpful is to take those predictions out, knock the dust off, and see how we’re doing after the mid-year point. Here are some observations about some of those predictions, as well as some other opinions about the current state of the training industry.

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Imagine this: Your sales rep is about to make a call to your largest customer. Just before the meeting, your rep receives an automatically generated text message informing her of a huge announcement just made in the market. Her ability to speak intelligently about this demonstrates your organization’s knowledge. You win new business. What made that possible was a learning portal utilizing widgets to pull, configure and redistribute relevant market intelligence just when it happens, and then automatically send it to your workforce as fast as possible.

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There are many misconceptions about training outsourcing. When should we outsource, when should we not? In a previous blog, I discussed the reasons why companies are choosing outsourcing as a viable sourcing strategy for training services. But I’m finding many people still view it as an either/or decision - either we outsource or we don’t. I’ve said it many times, “all training organizations outsource some part of their training activities”. So the better question is, “what outsourcing strategy should I use?"

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ACS, a Xerox Company, and a Top 20 Training Outsourcing Company, this week announced they will be acquiring human resources outsourcing company, ExcellerateHRO (EHRO) from Hewlett Packard for $125 m. The deal brings an experienced contingent of resources and customer base to an already global HR Outsourcing leader in ACS. So wins in this deal? ACS, HP, or EHRO? How about the customer?

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The first quarter of 2010 is shaping up to be a growth market for training products and services. I estimate the overall training services market to be up by more than 6% from 2009 spending levels. It appears that corporate executives are loosening the purse strings and we're seeing positive revenue growth with most every large training supplier. Especially hot markets have been custom content development, sales training, and IT Training. The very good news is this is translating into job growth for the training profession.

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The most successful business executives will tell you that getting an organization to perform at the ultimate level, you must clearly define the business processes, and then position resources to consistently execute on those processes. Training organizations are no exception. I believe that many training organizations do not perform at a level they should because they don't understand process management.

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There is no question that 2009 was a turbulent year for many training organizations. Reduction in workforce, rationalization of portfolio's, reduced budgets - we can go on and on about the trials and tribulations of how this economy affected our profession. What I find interesting is through adversity, the changes organizations are making to improve how they manage the training function.

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Everyone knows that virtually every company, no matter of their size and industry vertical, in some way and at some time, must spend money to train themselves, their employees, their customers, or their suppliers. All large corporations and government offices provides some form of training for their constituents. Even the small independent consulting companies periodically provide or take training to keep their credentials current and to stay up to date on industry trends and innovations.

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If training is such an important investment in a company's future, then why do companies spend less when things are bad? Shouldn't we invest more in our people to help them be more efficient, or to prepare them for when the business returns? Or is management making the right decision?

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Would you agree that one of the fundamental reasons companies train employees is to improve their performance? Is it the employee's fault when they don't perform? Learn how to use the 3 laws of accountability to test whether an employee should be held accountable for their performance. Or if management is responsible.

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