Training is an important expense for any company; and, according to Industry Week, it's a more important and larger expense for more profitable and successful companies. Two big problems that crop up for most companies when it comes to training are getting everybody together in the same place to do the training, and paying the expenses for all of that travel and get-together.
Now, you can use the Web to help improve your training and save some money.
Columbia HCA is one of the largest hospital management firms there is. A couple of years ago, they figured that it costs them about six thousand dollars every time one of their positions went off to some kind of update training. That included the wages to fill in for the position, the travel, the registration at the event, etc. So what Columbia did was set a goal of replacing one traveled-to-training event with an online event for the year.
That's only one of the ways to save money. You can offer some training online that otherwise people would have to travel to.
That's getting easier and easier and easier to do. Several companies are now set up to offer training over the Web that can be delivered over the public Web or through a corporate Intranet. They make available material developed by top trainers from around the world.
Some of these are online courses without direct instructor interaction, while others include a component where trainees can interact with and question the trainer/expert.
Making It Work
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If you've already got good training material in-house, now would be a good time to investigate what it would take to put it in Web-based format. An awful lot of the things that we learn can be handled as computer-based training; and if they can, putting them on the Web can make them both more available and less expensive.
Consider an outside training firm or individual trainer and licensing courses or content that you want to use. I've developed a course, for example, on Writing for the Web, which is licensed by several trade associations. They pay on the basis of actual training units used.
Be careful that you go for the right mix of classroom and online training. Emerging research in colleges and universities seems to point to the idea that the most effective training is a combination of direct contact, (sometimes electronic) and Web-based materials.
Created/Revised/Reviewed: 30 July 2002
This is only one Big Idea. You'll find more in Wally's book, What's the Big Idea? and in his Big Idea column. There's a complete list on the Main Big Idea page. You may also order the book by clicking here.
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