Why Training Costs Are Eating At Your Company Budget and How to Fix It

One of the biggest challenges in managing a business is training your employees. As no business can afford to stagnate, you need to train your workers with the latest developments in the industry. The same thing goes for your new hires who need to learn the ins and outs of your business.

Furthermore, the impact of the pandemic is changing the dynamics of training. It is now a must that you train your people about the best practices in workplace hygiene. The question now is this: are you getting the most out of your training costs?

Unfortunately, you may be wasting the company budget by not getting the right results. Continue reading below as we give you tips on how to reduce training costs.

Characteristics of a Costly Employee Training

The average American company spends about $1,111 on training costs per employee. Moreover, small companies spend about $1,678 from their business budget for training. With the huge spending, how can you tell if your company is wasting money on training costs?

One of the first signs is that you don’t see any significant improvement in your employees. If they keep on committing the same mistakes, it could mean they’re not getting the right kind of training.

From there, things can go on a downward spiral. Because of the poor training they get, they will not reach their full potential. In turn, they yield low productivity.

Because of this, your company will lose productivity hours. A good example is when you train your new hires. As you spend time in training, you lose your productivity.

This becomes more evident if you don’t know how to train your people the right way. You will spend on equipment and other supplies for the training. Your overhead expenses will also go up, as you may need to provide food for your trainees.

Reducing Training Costs: Revisit the Value

There are many ways to fix your training-related problems. The first step is to revisit your training setup and identify the expenses that do not add value. Your goal is to invest in the right training program to bring the most value to your company.

Thus, ensure that the training aligns with your strategic goals. If any part doesn’t, remove it to reduce your training expenses.

Moreover, focus on the non-negotiable items. These include compliance training and other methods that affect your business. These are some of the key items you should prioritize in your training.

Switch to Online Training

You can also reduce the cost of training by going online. For starters, online training materials are available for download. This is perfect for companies on a tight budget.

The great thing about online training modules is their scalability. You can develop training activities and host them online for all candidates. With the ongoing pandemic, you can train your employees wherever they are.

Furthermore, you can update these modules with ease. You can even automate them for deployment to all trainees. In turn, you can save more time and resources.

Consider reducing workshops and shift your focus on virtual training through webinars. The great thing about webinars is that they eliminate the need for your employees to travel. Moreover, you don’t need to spend on their food and venue during the training.

These webinars can also accommodate big or small groups. Three to five participants would not be a problem for you. If you need to train 30 employees, you can also do so by splitting them into breakout facilities.

As for the length, webinars can be more effective than four to five hours of workshop training. By launching 60-minute webinars, you can avoid overloading information for your trainees. In turn, they will be able to understand and absorb information better.

Tap Your Internal Experts

If you have experts in your company, consider having them lead the training instead of hiring external consultants. Begin by profiling your employees. Your goal is to identify the ones who excel in their respective departments.

From there, provide them the tools they need to create online training materials. This way, you can also reduce your spending on outsourced training materials. Since they belong to the company, they can create training materials that align with your business goals and culture.

However, if you’re a start-up company, you must first train your staff until they become experts. Thereafter, they can lead your training sessions in the future.

Boost Your Assessment Feasibility

Churning up training sessions and webinars is only one part of the big picture. The other side is assessing the feasibility of your training. However, assessing the performance of each trainee and providing feedback can take a lot of time.

Thus, boost your assessments through automation. When sending out quiz questions, automate the feedback responses. Additionally, introduce self-assessment activities and peer reviews.

Hire a Trusted Staffing Agency

Last but not least, consider hiring a trusted staffing agency. This is perfect if you wish to ramp up hundreds of workers for deployment to different locations.

A staffing company will handle trains a database of prospective workers. They can find the best candidates to fill vacancies in offices. They can give you temporary or permanent placements to give you more flexibility.

If you find their workers meeting your expectations, they may become permanent employees. However, if your business is somewhat new, grind it out and train your employees until you are ready to ramp up.

Learn Other Ways to Reduce Expenses

By reducing your training costs, you can save your resources and align them to other areas of concern. As you develop your trainers from the inside, you will have an easier time training your new hires. However, revisiting your employee training is only one way of reducing your expenses.

Check out our other articles and discover ways to streamline your company spending. We provide tips that will help you reduce your expenses without compromising the quality of your output.