When & Where to Invest in Training

By Bruce James

A Typical Scenario

You are about to deploy a new or upgraded application to each of your users and want to offer them the opportunity to work better, faster, smarter because you believe this will result in a significant reduction in the total cost of ownership (TCO). Now what? Granted that the new application presents new capabilities, that it’s been redesigned to be more intuitive to the end user, that it offers enhanced features to provide new capabilities... will your end users automatically jump on the bandwagon and significantly increase their effectiveness in performing their day-to-day work?

In any economic cycle, budgets are carefully scrutinized, but today with stagnant or decreasing budgets it is imperative that technology solutions not only solve business problems but also pay for themselves. The TCO of any given product is difficult to calculate. It is the total cost (including both ‘hard’ costs and ‘soft’ costs) of a product from acquisition to retirement. Hard costs would include the initial purchase cost, installation and setup costs, license fees, and upgrade or support contracts. These are concrete expenses that can easily be quantified. Just as important, though, are the soft costs that are not as easily computed. These would include costs related to system management, end-user training, user help-desk support, end-user performance and system downtime. These expenses are spread out over the life of the product and as such many times are not included in initial budget analysis. Therefore, TCO calculations at the outset must not only identify the overall hard costs related to the product, but also aim to quantify, and in the end, reduce the overall costs associated with ownership of the product.

Your new software can provide a platform whereupon the end-user can significantly increase his or her effectiveness in doing his or her day-to-day work. This obviously can result in a lower TCO through increases in user productivity. But for this increased user performance to materialize, end user training needs to be considered to more completely realize this benefit. Many times it is assumed that users will simply pick up on changes to software and quickly adapt to use new and modified features. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case. According to the Gartner Group “It takes an untrained practitioner, user or developer three to six times as long to accomplish the amount of work done by a trained worker. That means that 12 hours of formal training can equate to as much as 72 hours of self training.”

Failure to Train

Several disturbing statistics related to the lack of proper training were discussed by David Stamps in “Stalking the Elusive Technology Payoff” wherein he finds:

A survey by SBTY Accounting Systems, a Sausalito, CA software company, finds that 25 million American workers squander something in the neighborhood of $100 billion a year. They waste that by spending an estimated 5 billion hours annually engaged in “nonproductive futzing with their PCs.” Among the leading time-wasting “futzes”: helping co-workers with their PCs, trying to figure out features on advanced software programs, and waiting for technical support when their do-it-yourself efforts lead them down the wrong paths.
A report issued by Nolan, Norton & Co., a Boston consulting unit of KPMG Peat Marwick, looked at 10 large U.S. companies and found that the time spent by personal-computer users helping other PC users costs from $6,000 to $15,000 a year for every PC. To put that cost in perspective, the average cost to purchase a PC with software and connect it to a network ranged from $2,000 to $6,000 at the time of the survey.
A study by one venerable computer-industry research firm, the Stamford, CT-based Gartner Group, found that for a medium sized company with 200 workers needing training on two new network applications, the cost would run to $540,000 in the first year. Recognizing that half a million bucks for training is a tough pill for a medium-sized company to swallow, Gartner calculated the cost of not training workers and arrived at a figure of $2 million - the cost of company time that untrained or poorly trained workers would burn up trying to figure out how to navigate through a network application or calling technical support to get assistance.

Start with Training in Mind

When planning a new implementation or a migration from earlier versions of your software, training programs for the end user need to be a vital part early on of that transition planning. Investments in new hardware, software and systems won’t necessarily be a success if the end users fail to utilize the capabilities that are made available to them. This obviously has a major impact on the TCO that is realized. Proper training is essential to lower the TCO. A critical implementation pitfall that is commonly made is to focus too much on process and technology, and not enough on the people who will be using the system. This seems intuitive, but in reality many organizations fail to plan accordingly to provide adequate training to their end users. Why does this happen? Why don’t organizations simply allocate the time and budget necessary to provide proper training to the end users? The answer is that despite common sense acceptance of the need for training at least philosophically, in practice it is often not as important as keeping to schedules and budgets.

Many migration and implementation schedules start out with an adequate vision on training. Invariably, though, problems creep in and project managers often end up viewing the amount of time necessary to complete end user training as taking too long. They then respond by compressing the time available for training, or eliminating it completely. This results in ill-prepared users who end up not utilizing most of the software’s capabilities, increasing the TCO. Guarding against training time compression or elimination is not sufficient to ensure success. Often, the scope of the training is lacking where the focus of the training is on which keystrokes or mouse clicks are used to perform a certain action, the “how to”, but subsequently forgetting the “why” of training. Users must be trained on how to handle the tools and adapt to integrate them with the organizations procedures. When training revolves around simply mouse clicks and keystrokes, the users focus solely on the machine and not the operational practices as it relates to the organization. In other words, the user needs to understand the why and not merely the how of the software.

This understanding is crucial because the user needs to see the ramifications of failing to use their new software properly. The user needs to see that when used correctly this new application becomes a highly integrated part of the entire business process involving multiple users both inside and outside of the organization and that when not used properly productivity declines and users revert to old habits in doing things.

A Blended Solution

To make this sort of training a reality it is necessary to implement a “blended training” solution that offers the users several channels to learn in a complete, holistic way. So what exactly is blended training? In a nutshell, blended training is an approach to learning that utilizes different delivery mechanisms to achieve a complete learning solution. Unlike traditional training that focuses principally on the “how”, blended training focuses on the “why”, on a specific problem set targeted towards a specific audience. The different component formats used in blended training differ based on the needs of the organization, but these would include:

Traditional on-site instructor led training
Virtual web-based instructor led training
On-site coaching
Online coaching
Computer based Training (CBT) delivered via CD-ROM
Web based Training (WBT) delivered online
Study guides and work books
Ready reference cards
Practice exercises and/or tests
Online help

Each of the above listed components have their own strengths and weaknesses. The problem is when only one method is utilized the weaknesses are not counter balanced. For example, one advantage of a CBT or WBT delivery is that it is self-paced, interactive and available on-demand. On the other hand it has the weakness of requiring self-motivation and it is fairly rigid in content which can’t adapt to meet the individual needs of the participant. Traditional on-site instructor led training overcomes that weakness due to the fact that the instructor is there for a hands-on tutoring session that is extremely flexible. That flexibility though comes at a cost associated with either the trainer or the learner needing to travel to a specific location at a specific time. Without enumerating all of the pros and cons of the different formats of learning, suffice it to say that no single method is perfect. This is where the blended training solution succeeds, in that it enables the organization to select a combination of delivery methods that are a “best fit” for the specific needs of that organization and its users.

One example of a blended training solution could be as follows:

An initial introduction to the software to each user in a self-paced CBT or WBT session. This would give the user an initial exposure to the new features of the application and could be scheduled around the user’s schedule.
After completion of the self-paced CBT/WBT, the user would then take a pre-training skills assessment test to find out what level of understanding they have of the different features of their software and where they are lacking knowledge.
Based on the results of the user’s skills assessment tests, users would be grouped together into small groups of 10-15 students who together would attend an on-site instructor led classroom training. Here the instructor becomes acquainted with each participant, developing a rapport. The content here would focus not only on those areas of knowledge that are lacking for the users, but more importantly on customizing the content delivery based on the business processes of the organization; in other words how does their software integrate into the day-to-day life of the users on the job. This is the “why” more than the “how”.
At the conclusion of the on-site training the users are given a post-training skills assessment test to find out what areas have been mastered and what areas still need work. Based on the post-training assessment, assignments are given that they are to complete outside of the classroom to solidify what was learned in the classroom.
For the first few days after the classroom experience a “coach” is available on site for On-the-job training (OJT). This OJT training is done one-on-one at the workplace of the user. As the user is doing their job and questions arise, the trainer comes to the desk of the user to coach the user on how to overcome the problem while doing their actual work. This reinforces not only the content that was learned previously, but provides again a direct correlation between their software and that user’s job function.
Follow up training and assistance would be available to the users in several different formats. Each user would receive a Training Manual that could be referred to for detailed information when questions arise while working. Each participant would receive a Ready-reference card that provides a very quick resource in the form of a foldout card containing essential information.

This example is just one possible scenario of a blended training solution. The focus always needs to be on the needs of the users in a specific organization and what is the best combination of learning methodologies that will result in the users understanding the “why” they are using the software, not just the mechanics of the “how”. An important part of this process is to involve not only management, but also the users from the start of the customization process. This overcomes the possible problem of the users not seeing the vision of why the training is taking place. This further allows the users to see the value of taking time out of their busy schedule to complete a blended training curriculum.

An Array of Options

The training industry with it’s growing e-learning sector provides all of the different components for a complete blended training solution, among them:

Application Computer-Based Training- Computer-based training modules for self-paced training deliverable at the workstation via CD, over the network or over the web.
Application Classroom Training- On-site, instructor-led training brings specialized training to customer sites while offering significant reduction in “out-of-office” time
Train-the-Trainer Coaching- One-on-one sessions with a certified trainer, who can help you understand how to master and teach others the features you use the most
On the Job Training (OJT)- On-site coaching at the users workspace. A certified coach specific to the application being trained is available during the work day so as users utilize newly learned concepts they can have hands-on coaching to solidify what was learned in the classroom
Application Virtual Training- Instructor-led, web-based training courses delivered in a highly interactive environment
Application User Training Manuals- Comprehensive books for reference and self-study of the software or as an excellent complement to instructor-led training
Application Reference Cards- An excellent instructional tool for users who are new to the application, it also serves as a handy reference for more experienced users

An effective, modern training staff works with each organization individually to customize the content of the training so that it is an exact fit for the specific needs that are unique to each organization. This is essential to achieve the lower TCO that the new application promises by tailoring the work experience to the specific organizational procedures and processes that the users experience each day. As was indicated earlier, a key component of a blended training solution is to provide the post-training tools necessary for the retention of what is learned in on-site or virtual training. Experts suggest that on average, people will forget half of what they learned shortly after leaving training unless proper corollary support materials are given. Therefore it is important to provide these tools such as training manuals, workbooks, ready reference cards and Computer Based Training CD’s that can be referred to on demand for refresher training in the ensuing months.

The Bottom Line

So what is the cost of training? Many project managers early on budgeted around 5% of overall project costs for training. Having recognized that this amount was inadequate today the average amount budgeted is closer to 10 to 15% of the total project cost. Of course there is not one ideal figure that is the correct answer, each organization needs to find the appropriate budget for their situation to ensure success.

Management buy-in and support for adequate training is essential to a successful application implementation. Senior managers must understand that there is a high level of productivity increases that can be attained when the new application is used fully and that an adequate expenditure on training is necessary to ensure success. Just a 2% increase in productivity has been shown to net a 100% return on investment (ROI) in outsourced, instructor-lead training. A four-year study by the American Society of Training and Development shows that firms who invest $1500 per employee in training compared to those that spend $125, experience on average: 24% higher gross profit margins and 218% higher income per employee. These numbers are the magic ROI numbers that management needs to understand to show that their new software can have a significant impact on how their employees do their jobs and that proper training is essential. It also needs to be understood that proper training not only increases user performance, but also leads to higher employee retention. A Louis Harris and Associate Poll says that among employees who say their company offers poor or no training, 41% plan to leave within a year. Of those that say their company offers excellent training, only 12% say they plan to leave.

A Final Word

In considering training for application implementations the following points need to be considered. Be careful in compressing the time available for training in order to make up for other implementation shortcomings. Tailor the user training around the organization’s business processes, not merely the software functionality. Have the trainers work alongside employees and management in designing and implementing the training. Emphasize how each element of the application is integrated to other processes and get users to understand their role in the process. And remember that while failure to train can result in poor implementations and cause setbacks in productivity, proper training can lead to a more effective implementation and ensure achievement of the benefits promised by their software.