How to Reduce Training Costs Without Sacrificing Quality

Without proper training, employees are ill-equipped when it comes to understanding how their role contributes to the success of the organization. If employees don’t understand the significance of their role, they are much less likely to bring innovative thinking to the business, excel in their roles, and contribute to the bottom line.

The American Society for Training and Development states that companies that offer comprehensive training have a 218% higher income per employee, and enjoy a 24% higher profit margin than companies who spend less on training. That’s a substantial win for both businesses and employees.

Many organizations shy away from training because of budget restrictions. Part of the challenge is that many companies leverage their knowledge of traditional training methods, like live instruction or corporate training events, to determine the cost of training their workforce. If organizations were to leverage the advantages of eLearning instead, they could reduce training costs without sacrificing the comprehensive training that employees need to be successful.

E-learning is Cost Effective

Making the transition to online employee education can save your organization money, while also helping you deliver impactful training that will help your workforce perform better. With virtual education, your team can create job-specific learning paths catered to the training needs of multiple corporate audiences without the traditional training expense of airfare, lodging, food, etc. Online training is also instantaneous, and can be completed at any time or from any location—giving employees the freedom to complete training at their own pace while also optimizing their on-the-job productivity by keeping employees at their place of employment.

E-Learning has an Incredible ROI

Not only will online learning save you money when compared to more traditional training programs, it’s ROI will benefit your business for years to come. Some of these advantages include increased speed and retention levels among employees, decreased learning time, and fewer training costs. By having on-demand learning modules, employees can access the training they need, when they need it most: on the job. This will save on additional hours of on-the-clock training. E-Learning also allows you to track proof of completion, view outcomes, and increase accountability among your employees. What other training program allows you to keep such detailed records? There is none. ELearning has unprecedented results and is the best choice you can make for training your workforce.

Reducing E-Learning Costs

If you are still concerned about your eLearning budget, there are several ways to maximize your training efforts while avoiding spending too much money.

Find the Right Learning Management System (LMS)

The first step in providing e-learning to your employees is to partner with a Learning Management System provider. An LMS should be user-friendly, functional, and accessible from any mobile device. The software should be adaptable so that your company can stay true to itself and give employees a familiar experience. Your LMS provider should understand the needs of your business, and help provide you the best online learning experience without depleting your training budget. 

Organize Your Content 

Once you have found an LMS provider to partner with, you can focus on delivering your training content to your audience. This is your chance to gather old training materials, as well as collect any relevant training tips from veteran employees and current managers. By packaging these files together using a Course Authoring tool, you can create SCORM-compliant courses to upload into your new LMS. 

Use Your Own Subject Matter Experts 

The most efficient way to manage your online training program is to recruit experts in your industry. These experts will often provide content, and review courses for accuracy and effectiveness. Many LMS providers will hire these experts for business as consultants. By finding your own, however, you will save money. As mentioned above, much of the knowledge about your business is in the hands of veteran employees. Recruit these employees as your subject matter experts to potentially trim down the cost of training curriculum development. 

Get Creative with Your Budget 

Starting from scratch with an e-learning program may seem overwhelming. The best way to conquer those doubts is to get creative with your budget. Perhaps, you have money set aside for several small projects. Rather than allotting this money to separate projects, find a way to combine the funds into an e-learning program that will benefit each area of the business. Another great way to budget for e-learning is to look at it as an investment rather than one large upfront cost. You may not have the budget to do one big project this year, so consider splitting the cost between two fiscal years, or timing the project so that the invoicing is split between these two years. Regardless of how you budget, just remember that having well-trained employees will increase customer retention, which is great for your bottom line. 
 

About Knowledge Anywhere 

Knowledge Anywhere is an eLearning company focused on providing flexible, modern learning and development solutions that enable organizations to harness the power of an engaged, knowledgeable workforce.

Our Learning Management System, Virtual Reality Training, and Course Development services, combined with our experience and customer support enables our users to create a learning and development program that boosts sales and drives company growth.