CEO of AllenComm since 2003.
getty
It's possible to not only optimize your training program during times of market volatility—when cost-cutting often puts increasing pressure on training departments—but also set your team up to thrive in the future as well.
While the U.S. economy remains hot, high inflation and a recalibration of growth targets for many of the country’s leading companies are leading to volatility in how employee training and development programs function. But while unpredictability can impact the labor market, it also creates opportunities for training professionals to innovate.
More With Less
Reflecting on past economic slumps, many training organizations and learning and development (L&D) departments are being called on to:
• Accomplish more with fewer resources, including people and technology.
• Support consolidation of departments, which requires upskilling employees with cross-functional skills.
• Take an integral role in supporting mergers and acquisitions, especially as stronger companies take advantage of lower company valuations in the market.
As a result, L&D groups can focus on the ways they can help their organization become more efficient and scalable. In times when cuts are being made, professionals can serve as visible and critical support structures to facilitate the mission of the organization.
While internal investment shifts away from new capital investments and technology, leaders in this field must retain their vitality as agents for change. You can offer strategic alternatives for how people—and the organization as a collective whole—are equipped to do their jobs.
Areas For Focus
Learning from the past, and looking toward the future, here are some recommended areas of focus for your organization:
1. Optimize your use of resources.
Run an audit on your internal and external partnerships through needs analysis, skills matrices and performance mapping.
Ask questions, including, "What are the core functions you need internally? What functions can be moved to variable costs or outsourced?"
Use your findings to refine your training initiatives and provide valuable data for other key business decisions.
2. Control costs and timelines.
By focusing on the readiness of your organization to support training initiatives, you can become more effective with the limited resources allocated to your project.
In times of great scrutiny on budget and costs, it especially pays to make sure that the alignment between training objectives, content readiness and business objectives is clear. A focus on more upfront planning can often help protect the timeline and budget.
3. Prioritize the learner experience.
Consolidate around the learner-focused experiences that are needed directly for job execution. In volatile times, learners may be stretched by new roles and expectations.
Consider whether your organization is set up to provide your audience with enough job-specific guidance that can be applied quickly. Some areas of soft skills investment may have to wait as the focus flows to more hands-on training initiatives.
4. Embrace change.
Don’t ignore the future as you work through this period. Being under-resourced can take a toll both professionally and personally. Necessity can be the mother of invention, so to speak.
Looking for things that can be embraced in the future such as scale, innovative use of technology and efficiencies can help enable you to provide better service to target audiences.
To Illustrate
How does this all come together? To illustrate, here is an experience my company had during the last recession.
Essentially, we were asked by a major, well-known credit lender to retrain their remaining staff after a major downsizing, as the department of 300 was scaled back to 100 employees and needed to upskill staff to cover multiple roles. (For many, this may be a familiar scenario.)
In response, we chose a learning design approach that prioritized simplicity and efficiency while making sure it did not oversimplify or ignore the predicament that necessitated the upskilling.
We optimized available resources by creating documentation of skills needed. New roles and responsibilities were clearly outlined and made accessible, especially for stretched employee learners, through a combination of self-paced and live training.
In situations such as these, it can be beneficial to emphasize easy access to information and short seat time to control cost, create efficiency and respect the bandwidth of learners.
It can be difficult for HR-related fields when organizations are looking for ways to lower costs and streamline activities. But being under the shadow of something like a pandemic or economic slump can actually help you harness your inherent capabilities, making you more flexible and innovative in the face of challenging circumstances.
The principles outlined above can serve as best practices that can help lay the right foundation for your business to continue to see successful outcomes when things get better.
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