The Pros of Outsourcing Employee Training While Prioritizing Its Effectiveness

Building a team of adaptable, talented employees at a reasonable cost is every organization’s goal.

To do that, you hire the most capable workers available at competitive salaries. Then, you use employee training to bridge knowledge gaps, keep workers growing, and future-proof your organization.

Knowing how to make that training program work effectively and at a reasonable cost is a critical part of the talent equation. For many organizations, a balance between in-house and outsourced training helps address some of the biggest challenges identified by organizations.

Michele Markey, CEO of SkillPath, draws from a career-long background in writing, delivering and directing workforce training, offering insight into today’s training challenges and how outsourcing training helps address these.

A closer look at two top employee training challenges

1. Lack of resources and/or personnel.

   Organizations spend a lot on employee training. In 2022, total workplace training expenditures in the United States reached the $100 billion mark for the first time. The most expensive part of that training figure — between 60 and 70 percent — is internal staffing.

   And there’s no replacement for using internal HR or training staff for certain types of training. Onboarding and industry- or organization-specific training requires in-house staff to not only design the programs but facilitate them.

   The trouble comes when training needs expand into more durable-type skills training and internal staff is spread thin. “Expecting in-house staff to become subject matter experts on every necessary training topic is a heavy lift,” explains Markey.  Emotional intelligence, leadership dynamics, diversity, equity and inclusion training — these topics are increasingly popular and help people work well together. But successfully offering these programs using in-house staff requires them to not just learn the topic, but design and facilitate it. That takes a lot of valuable time.

   Compliance training also gets complicated and time-consuming for in-house staff. Depending on the topic, regulations change frequently. Training program content and facilitator knowledge need to keep up.

2. Low learner engagement.

   Providing training is only half the employee development equation. A McKinsey survey reported that only one-quarter of respondents said their training programs measurably improved business performance. Yet, the demand for learning and development is rising in popularity, with 84% of employees stating they expect training from their employer. Why this discrepancy?

   Active engagement by adult learners  is critical to improving both knowledge and its application. Skilled instructional designers and teachers know and use a variety of tools such as surprise, repetition, and humor to encourage learning and retention. They build in opportunities for discovery, challenging activities, collaboration and sharing between peers and instructors to improve engagement and thus, learning retention.

   For some training, this matters less. If you want to know how to build a spreadsheet in Excel, something from an on-demand content library works, suggests Markey. Some workers want a synchronous learning experience under the guidance of an instructor while others may prefer asynchronous learning where they work at their own pace or access short how-to videos as they need them. Or maybe a combination of both — blended learning — is best.

   Another key facet of learner engagement is motivation. Adult learners want to decide what they’re learning and make their own learning goals. They need to feel that the material is useful and relevant. Without this autonomy, they are less motivated to learn, less likely to engage, and less likely to build new knowledge, habits or attitudes.

   This can be challenging in workplaces filled with individuals of varying skill levels, interests and training delivery preferences.

With an eye toward engagement and cost-effectiveness, how can you offer all these options?

Talk to SkillPath Enterprise Solutions for customized group training, a dynamic learning platform or content licensing that meets all your L&D needs.

3 ways outsourcing addresses employee training challenges

Cost savings, course and delivery flexibility, and engagement expertise are three factors that make outsourcing employee training attractive. Let’s take a closer look at each:

1. Cost savings

   Creating and facilitating employee training are unique skills and can get expensive. The volume of training your organization needs may be inconsistent, making maintaining a cost-effective internal training staff level difficult. You can save money by outsourcing a variety of durable skills topics. But simply making a choice based on price is a mistake, suggests Markey. “Of course, organizations have budget constraints, but instead of shopping price, you should find the right partner and work with them to see what can be done to achieve your learning objectives, given your budget. Whether you’re looking to outsource one topic or several, use care in finding the right provider to act as an extension of your organization.”

2. Course and delivery flexibility

   Different types of workers have different strengths and roles, which necessitates different training topics (or levels of training). Learners also have preferences for a variety of training formats, from synchronous instructor-led group training to asynchronous self-paced on-Demand content. Consider the offerings you want to provide and what matters most to your employees. Match your needs with the expertise and formats of training providers.

3. Engagement expertise

   Employee engagement in training begins with motivation and that is most influenced by an organization’s leadership, suggests Markey. “Leaders build the criticality of training with employees. Why are we making these particular choices? Why are we spending time and money? What are we hoping to achieve? What’s the benefit to you as an employee?”

With this initial motivation in place, find a training provider with the most relevant background and experience who ensures that courses are designed and delivered to promote learner engagement.

Some organizations are hesitant to outsource employee training. While outsourcing employee training provides access to subject matter experts and facilitators who excel in employee engagement, it can feel like you’re giving up the clear advantage an internal trainer offers in institutional knowledge.

Markey suggests this doesn’t need to be an either-or proposition. “There is a middle ground.” Finding an outsourcing training partner that offers a consistent set of facilitators who understand your industry, can help them flavor the content to the specific challenges your organization faces.

“This training organization should act as an extension of your own company — something I’d be very selective about. It’s a collaboration with well-defined objectives everyone understands and is working toward.”