How To Leverage Studying And Efficiency Consulting Companions
How to use the learning guidance
The increased focus on remote work has also resulted in a huge shift in how companies view the mandate of their internal training teams. A new work paradigm has led L&D teams to switch quickly to fulfill their new training assignments.
However, given the limited time available for this switch and the fact that this is a brave new workout world that requires vastly different skills, this fulcrum becomes even more difficult. In such situations, working with a strategic learning and performance counseling partner can be helpful.
How can partnerships help L&D teams achieve their realigned focus areas?
Traditional focal points for L&D teams were the “training” of employees based on regular schedules, compliance assignments or as a result of a new addition to the workforce.
While that focus may still hold true, changing workplace dynamics, especially given today’s focus on remote working, is forcing companies to rethink the focus of L&D teams, including:
Involvement and training of distance learners. The challenge here is to motivate virtual learners and create a better “learning experience” that is broader than providing traditional “learning experiences”:
- Motivating learners
- Understand learner needs and expectations
- Provide correct feedback to learners
- Integration of social and informal learning
- Align L&D with corporate goals
- Measurement of the training effect
- Create a learning culture
These realigned focus areas are extremely diverse and in-house L&D teams are unlikely to have the skills and experience to handle them all efficiently.
Therefore, leveraging strategic learning and performance counseling partnerships can be the most effective way to meet the increased expectations in today’s business environment.
How can learning and performance consulting partners create added value that goes beyond pure content development?
Strategic learning and performance counseling partners can not only support internal training teams with content development. The skills these partners bring to a relationship can also help training teams realign their focus to fulfill their expanded L&D mandate.
While traditional L&D outsourcing models used external partnerships primarily for content development, a lot has changed in recent years. These organizations now have a wider range of expertise beyond content development that they bring to any strategic L&D engagement, including:
- Implementation (from concept to design to deployment)
Internal L&D teams typically “borrow” generalized expertise from various departments within the organization to provide end-to-end training from vision to implementation. While it is a practical approach, having an organizational partner who specializes in every aspect will provide better and more coordinated results. External partners bring end-to-end L&D experience and best practices across the entire cycle. - Evaluation-Training effectiveness and effect (on learners as well as the business)
Many understaffed and underfunded in-house L&D teams are under pressure to focus on developing and delivering training. With the help of an outside partner, additional skills and practices can then be used to focus on assessing the effectiveness of the training for both individual learners and the organization. - ROI determination
Determination of the ROI [1] requires broader know-how than pure L&D expertise. It also requires knowledge and insight into a number of factors, including industry standards, accounting and valuation standards, and competitive ratings, that a typical in-house L&D team may not have. Working with external learning and performance advisors opens doors for internal teams to access this experience and expertise. - Measures to maintain the learning connection [2] (Strengthening, correcting, practicing, challenges and gaining skills)
Training isn’t over when it’s over. Unfortunately, internal teams with limited resources are not always able to maintain learning connections after training. External partners bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to measure and maintain the ongoing benefits of initial training.
While in-house L&D teams typically have a great deal of expertise to meet the needs of their organization’s training needs, they lack the variety and breadth of skills and experience available in learning and performance consulting firms. In today’s extremely competitive training landscape, especially when it comes to remote training and online learning, it pays to leverage cross-industry global training and learning best practices.
What are the business benefits of working with learning and performance consulting partners?
Most companies have drastically reduced their workforce, including downsizing L&D teams to cut costs to meet the competitive challenges. Given this reduction in internal training capacity, using strategic learning and performance counseling partnerships offers several benefits:
- External learning and performance counseling partners have built significant skills to address all of the challenges discussed above. It would take a lot of time, effort, and investment to develop such skills in-house.
- Through several successful engagements and by supporting other customers in solving similar challenges, outsourced learning and performance consulting partners have developed and perfected L&D best practices. This includes proven methods, value-adding frameworks and diverse expertise. Companies can now quickly turn these assets into a competitive advantage.
- Strategic, engagement-based and results-driven partnerships are ideal for better cost control and greater transparency and accountability.
- To you, the customer, some of the challenges you are facing are new, while others are yet to manifest. Through various similar engagements, strategic learning and performance counseling partners have previously faced most of these challenges and now offer you this expertise that you can leverage.
- Learning from personal experience through trial and error can be a costly and lengthy process. With their wide range of customer experiences, outsourced learning and performance counseling partners can accelerate this learning process by providing you with the benefits of their own experiences and experiences.
- Innovation typically comes from outside and not from a closed loop within an organization’s ecosystem. Partners will drive innovation and help you implement and adopt new approaches to your L&D programs.
In summary, there are good arguments in favor of working with an outsourced learning and performance counseling partner, including lowering costs, flexibility in building and dismantling internal teams, access to new skills and talent, compressing the development of new training and providing access to Industry best practices and leverage innovative training solutions.
Most importantly, outsourcing learning and performance counseling partners can help companies address a cultural shift in their L&D programs. By leveraging their experience and expertise, companies can reinvent their training in a brand new virtual world of work and study.
Farewell Thoughts
The new labor paradigm has forced companies to look beyond their own organizations for a competitive advantage, especially in the L&D space. External learning and performance counseling partners can provide a significant portion of this competitive advantage.
In a previous article, we presented a business case for using such external partnerships to develop learning content. Here we have highlighted how companies can use a broader know-how from external partners.
When used strategically, companies can benefit from such partnerships to meet expanded expectations for multiple facets of their business. These can include rapid retraining, retraining, and upgrading of their workforce. External training partners can help companies quickly face the new challenges in a virtual learning world.
I hope my article provides the necessary insight on how L&D teams can leverage the value that learning and performance counseling partners offer and benefit the company in today’s business environment.
In the meantime, if you have specific questions, please contact me or leave a comment below.
References:
[1] Training effect and ROI
[2] How to use microlearning to develop employee learning habits and promote continuous learning in the workplace
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EI design
EI Design is a leading provider of learning and performance support solutions that thrive on transforming learning and keeping it relevant, effective and continuous.
Originally published on www.eidesign.net.
