Freelance Series — Keeping the Cost of Training Low

One of the biggest challenges a training department has is justifying its existence. In most cases, learning and development only show up on the expense side of the balance sheet. So how do we justify our existence to the powers that be? Here are several strategies that you can include in training to keep the cost low and justify the existence of learning and development to the decision-makers in your organization.

Avoid expensive technology for technology’s sake

Virtual Reality Goggles may be an unnecessary expense

I had an experience a number of years ago with an organization that hired me for consultation. They were really excited about Adobe Captivate’s new virtual reality solution. The designer who wanted to use this new technology was more interested in the technology but didn’t consider if virtual reality lent itself to this situation. The organization purchased several virtual reality headsets for the learners to use when completing this course. This expense wasn’t needed and many in the organization were left wondering why this equipment was purchased.

Don’t reinvent the learning wheel

Some of the requests I get from new or less experienced eLearning developers look something like this…

My eLearning project is due on Monday morning and I promised this really cool interaction that I just can’t figure out. Can you help me get this completed on Sunday evening?

Of course, I help as many people in this situation as I can but I learned much earlier in my career to build what I call an eLearning utility belt. Remember how amazing Batman was at pulling out just what he needed at the moment to solve just about any crime-fighting challenge.

eLearning Superheroes

I spend a certain amount of my week working on new learning interactions. I like to design them in such a way that I can simply copy them from the original project and paste them into any project that requires them. I might spend many hours developing these solutions but can implement them into new projects in a matter of minutes. This greatly decreases my development time but also lowers my stress level. I never promise anything to a stakeholder that I don’t already have in my eLearning utility belt.

Keep learner seat time low

This one can be more challenging but worth it. It usually requires that you manage the expectations of your subject matter experts. Subject matter experts or SMEs are often assigned to you by the stakeholder for a project. These folks know everything about that area of the business. If it was up to them you would teach everything they know and the training would take many days for learners to complete. The reality is that most learners only need to know a small portion of the knowledge that the SME contains. Your eLearning projects should only include the knowledge and skills required to meet expectations. Optional material can be converted to another format. Also, material that would allow learners to take their knowledge and skill to the mastery level that an expert has can be reserved for when the stakeholder funds such a master level training program.

Use job aids whenever possible

Job aids are a great way to move content into an easy to development format that can be made available in a just-in-time way. My classic example of a parking sign is a good example of this. Sure you can make an eLearning course that teaches employees how to park in and around the various facilities at your organization but a simple parking sign (which is really just a job aid) can eliminate the need for your organization to develop a training course about parking. In this example, the parking sign (job aid) is made available in the exact location where it’s needed and there is no memorization required by your employees. They just need to follow the directions on the sign.

Rely on informal learning

There is some risk in informal learning but if you create a learning culture within your organization you can ensure that informal learning takes place. It can be as simple as giving people supervisory roles within your organization. Setting performance measurements on supervisors to include a certain amount of time in any given week to dedicate to training will ensure that regular employees learn from their mentors. You can develop job shadowing programs for very little expense (if any). Also, check if your organization has material you can already leverage. For example, one organization provided access to LinkedIn Learning. Most employees were unaware of this. By promoting this benefit, many employees will rely on this valuable resource to gain skills not only for their current role but for future positions as well.

Keep track of when learning is successful

Finally make sure that when learning proves to be successful, keep track of those successes. I like to include feedback from employee managers approximately 30-45 days after completing training. I simply ask one question.

How is your employee performing in the area related to the training?

If you can demonstrate that a previous performance gap is now addressed you might even be able to quantify it. For example, if last year there were a certain number of on the job accidents and this year your training has contributed to fewer accidents you can show the higher ups that your training has saved the company the cost associated with an injured employee.

The Five Things To Consider When Designing a Job Aid

When you work in learning and development, your manager or stakeholder will eventually ask you to produce a job aid. I recall being overwhelmed with this request the first time my employer asked me to create a job aid. I thought there was some secret format that job aids must be. It turns out that the term job aid simply means any tool that aids your employees in performing a particular set of tasks.

It should be available only when employees need it

I recommend that you create job aids for tasks that employees need to perform infrequently. For example, if employees do not perform these tasks daily or weekly but instead only perform them monthly or even less frequently, it isn't easy to memorize these steps. Job aids can also assist employees during the early stages of new procedures until such time that these procedures are committed to memory.

It should be available where employees use it

When you are designing a job aid, you should consider where employees will use it. For example, if a particular piece of equipment is involved in the procedure, having the job aid posted next to this equipment is ideal. Posting the job aid on the company intranet site is fine for procedures that employees would perform in front of their computer but if the procedure is completed elsewhere there is no advantage to having accessed from a computer.

It should be in a format that is appropriate

When I worked at the Toronto Pearson International Airport, all employees had ID cards on lanyards. We would often create job aids in a format that could be printed and laminated and then added next to the employee ID cards on the same lanyard. Of course, keep in mind that too many job aids around the neck can be cumbersome.

It should be simple and contain just enough information to complete the tasks

Generally, I'm not a fan of bulleted or numbered text, but formatting your content in simple points is best in the case of a job aid. Again you only want to provide just enough information for the employee to complete the task. You don't need an extensive introduction or back story about the importance of the procedure. Save that for the elearning course.

I think the best example of a well-designed job aid would be the parking signs you might find in the downtown section of any city or town. In the example below, the P with a green circle means you can park in this location, but there are also some additional conditions. For example, you can only park for 30 minutes at a time. Also, you can only park between 9:00 AM and 18:00 hours on any day except Sunday.

I think the parking sign illustrates the example of the simple job aid.

Training on using the job aid should not be required

You shouldn't require any separate training. It should be completely self-explanatory. If you need to train employees how to use the job aid you’ve done it wrong.

Summary

You can use whatever example you wish but I like to visualize the parking sign when I design and develop job aids. You can see that it makes use of all five things I like to consider when designing job aids.

1. You only need it when parking in this location

2. It’s located next to where it’s needed

3. It’s in an appropriate format

4. It contains only the information required and it’s simple and in point form

5. It requires no additional training

If you try to hit each of these points when designing your job aids you should do fine.