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3 Habits to Capitalize on your Staff Training while keeping on a Minimum Budget

Ever wondered if some habits and techniques could allow you to keep your budget on track and better capitalise on the investment you are making on people?

In this article we will share with you 3 habits you can adopt to capitalise on your staff training while keeping on a minimum budget.

This is the challenge we all have when working in training: how to make the most (impact) with the minimum budget? We all want the investments we make to be worthwhile for our company, and with limited budget for training and preparing staff to perform we have to make the right choices.

So how to capitalise on the training you offer your staff while keeping your budget in check? Here are 3 ways to do this.

But first things first, good news is you don’t have to compromise on the quality of your training because budget is limited. And I understand these is the case for many L&D departments.

And even if you are in an organisation which invests deeply in developing staff and with enough financial resources to ensure quality people development, you can still find ways to bring more benefits of learning onto your organisation.

The idea is, with simple to implement strategies, to optimise how you reach out better to staff for a better learning experience while keeping your budget in mind.


1. Reap the benefits of social learning

Social learning means basically learning from others, in a social context, either that being formally or informally. Because learning happens with and through other people, when being part of a community or team, it is important to use social learning within your organisation and reap its benefits.

The knowledge and experience your staff members have are precious resources, and extremely valuable for your organisation from a learning perspective. And they are free.
So you can build on these assets to strengthen your learning strategy and deliver an even better service for people development.

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To do this you need to create the space for sharing and collaboration with others, either that be through organisation events (such as a lunch and learn, or best practices round tables) or

remotely via collaborative tools (chats, forums, or corporate social networks). The Advance LMS, for example, has a social learning component to it, where learners can share and story tell, and work together on projects according to their interests or to the training/projects they are following.
By using social learning, you can also significantly increase the impact of learning, generate higher engagement from your people and improved organisational outcomes.

 2. Create quality learning experiences

More than planning training events for staff members, create quality learning experiences which are:

1) engaging and participatory so that knowledge and skills can be easily acquired and retained,

2) brain-friendly, i.e. based on the brain’s natural learning cycle to boost people capacity to learn, problem-solve and create, and

3) results-oriented to enhance application of learning to the workplace.

To do this plan learning activities that change mindsets and behaviours, not only aimed at acquiring knowledge. This requires a deeper level of learning and change and experienced facilitators).

Offer a variety of learning activities and opportunities that cater to a variety of learning styles and levels of proficiency. This should also include a variety in the delivery of learning options: face-to-face, online learning, virtual reality learning, lunch and learn events, etc.

As Einstein said: ‘Learning is an experience. Everything else is information.’ Therefore organise learning experiences that appeal to the learner, and are oriented towards practice.

3. Use blended and online learning

Depending on your work environment, the learning objectives and the type of skills to be developed face-to-face programmes can prove to be essential.  However, this is not the case for all types of training, and training needs.
Compliance training (such as sexual harassment policies, training on procedures or internal policies) or software/technical-building courses can especially be adapted to an online format. And because this kind of courses can easily be transferred onto an online format it allows staff to access content at the most convenient moment and to re-visit content over and over.


For soft skills training, especially training that aims for a behavioural change, the most adequate learning delivery method remains face-to-face training. And in terms of efficiency some authors state this is the delivery method that produces more behavioural change, and that produces changes with a more long-lasting effect in individuals. This is especially true when face-to-face training is targeted, experiential, built on real work issues and when it gives participants the chance to share knowledge and experience.

Mixing online and face-to-face delivery – blended learning – can therefore be the most cost-effective (and budget-friendly) solution.

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Besides cost-effectiveness we can also reap other benefits from blended learning. It allows customisation and adaptation of the training as learning delivery can be designed to fit in with your organisation’s specific workplace, context and stages of development, globally diverse workforce and even to adapt to the individual learner needs, experience and behaviour. As you can select and fit in many diverse resources and content, the possibilities are very wide.

Therefore, when thinking of developing new learning options, the important question to ask is: what needs to be delivered in a face-to-face format, and what can be done via virtual classes. By choosing wisely which content and learning objectives you are promoting via each format you are boosting the learning experience and using your budget cleverly.

As systems, procedures and processes change, as well as the workplace itself, your staff will need to succeed and ensure a good performance in them. Well-thought and planned training programs can support these changes and your organisational goals to ensure your people are guided through the change journey. Naturally, training is a key component for a smooth transition, and we hope this gave you some ideas on how to maximise it without breaking the bank…

We hope you enjoyed this article on the key habits easy to capitalise on your staff training.  Now we want to hear from you: which habit from this article are you most excited to adopt? Which other habits or techniques do you use?

Let us know by leaving a quick comment.

Happy learning!!

#Learning   #Budget   #training

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