Suman Agarwal, Co founder of Image Consulting Business Institute
In the wake of technology, today’s companies recognize the importance of training and look for ways to incorporate it as a part of their business need to ensure that they stay competitive.
Every company has learning needs, and these needs have to be met to ensure profit and growth. But it’s not easy for an organization to have a dedicated learning and development department because it is a huge investment, and not everyone can afford it.
Enter outsourcing. Outsourcing has become effective tried-and-tested model that ensure great ROI. In fact, it has proved to be a successful competitive strategy that businesses can use on a long-term basis as and when needed. Outsourcing can help companies focus more on their core business while keeping their expenses in control.
Here are the top 5 reasons why you should choose to outsource your training activities.
- Your training needs are numerous and diverse.
Most companies function with several business units and departments, each with its own unique training and development needs. Your sales team may need to learn about various selling approaches; your customer support/client servicing team and top management may need image consulting and soft skill training; your marketing team may need to develop skills in automation software and SEO; your company managers may need training in leadership development.
The training needs of companies are vast and complex. For your training efforts to be successful, you need expert trainers. To cater to such diverse training needs, your in-house resources may not have the bandwidth, but you can outsource your training programs to the experts who will.
- You lack technology expertise.
Technology has seeped into the training industry, and words like AI and VR are extensively thrown around. Most of the time, the internal technology experts are asked to conduct the training. The problem with this approach is that these people are technology experts and not trainers. So, they may lack the training skills. You have the option of creating a team of in-house technology trainers, but it comes at a huge cost, which you can easily avoid by outsourcing.
- You improve the scalability of resources.
Running a full-fledged internal training department means hiring trainers of various levels of skills and talent. This is a fixed resource, but the issue is that training is a variable activity. You are investing in a dedicated training team, which you may not require at all times.
Outsourcing your training needs allows you to be flexible and use resources as and when you need it. It gives you the flexibility to scale up and down based on the training demands.
- You get a fresh perspective on things.
When you use an in-house training team, the trainers use the same approach while conducting training programs. Moreover, over time, the participants get bored as they feel that there is nothing new to learn. By outsourcing training, you have new faces conducting the training with a new and fresh perspective.
- You cut costs.
All the above reasons culminate into one benefit – reduced costs. Outsourcing is a lot cheaper than hiring and maintaining an in-house training team. With an outsourcing model, you have the opportunity to use them only when you need them. Once the project is over, the talent is no longer an expense.
