Quality learning and development (L&D) opportunities are high in demand. Providing employees with positive learning experiences and effective corporate training programs helps companies attract and retain new talent, giving them a competitive advantage in today’s job market.
More than ever before, employees leave jobs when they don’t have opportunities for growth. With this increased focus on training and development, many businesses are outsourcing their training needs to external providers. In fact, Training Industry data suggests that organizations outsource over one-fourth of their training activities. There are thousands of different learning vendors to choose from, each with different offerings.
While having options is great, juggling multiple learning vendor partnerships creates a challenge of its own. Working with multiple organizations is expensive, and it can be difficult to align projects and keep them focused on the organization’s learning objectives. Most learning and development professionals feel that it would be easier to improve the business process of outsourcing (BPO) services through vendor consolidation. In fact, 83% of organizations say they would like to work with a single training vendor.
The good news is that learning vendor consolidation is now possible, with managed learning services (MLS). The term “managed learning services” includes a wide range of training solutions, from custom learning content development to advanced learning technology.
Improving Your Learning Strategy
When you partner with a single learning vendor, it can use its expert knowledge and advanced learning technologies to assist you in aligning your training programs with your key business objectives. Leveraging managed learning services maximizes the effectiveness of your training programs by ensuring that each piece supports wider organizational goals.
Providing eLearning, which employees can access anywhere, is not just trending but is becoming essential for learning engagement. A managed service provider has to have the tools and software needed to create, manage and update your web-based training programs. Partnering with a provider is especially useful when it comes to creating customized training programs that include personalization features. Many of today’s most successful training programs are enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI). These programs can adapt to user patterns to create individual learning paths, speeding up time to competency and boosting employee engagement.
Increasing Speed and Cutting Costs
Working with an MLS provider can also help you save money and time. When all your L&D needs are aligned, it is easier for your outsourcing partner to help you find ways to save and cut costs. It has years of experience in the learning and development field and is up to date with the latest trends and technology, so it knows which methods are the most effective. This partnership will help you avoid costly fads and learning trends that are not profitable.
Outsourcing L&D staff can also be more cost effective than training your team for a short-term project. Your MLS provider’s team likely already has the necessary knowledge to do the job, and when the project is complete, the team is no longer an expense. In addition to these savings, this type of staff augmentation also speeds up your learning and development projects, increasing the operational efficiency of your L&D department.
Delivering Diverse and Large-scale Training Programs
Large organizations often require large-scale training, especially when there is a business-wide shift in processes or tools. For example, if a company offers a line of new products, it may need to implement product knowledge training to equip its staff with essential knowledge. Another example is when an organization updates or changes a software used across the business. In this case, a large-scale training plan would be useful to increase user adoption of the new tools. Outsourcing large-scale projects can help them run more smoothly.
Large companies also have many different departments with unique training needs. Most of these organizations do not have the internal resources to develop highly specialized training programs for each of these departments. Outsourcing will not only help your company develop customized training plans for different departments, but they can also ensure that each program aligns with your organization’s strategic objectives.
Efficiently Completing Small, Short-term Projects Without Disrupting Daily Workflow
Short-term projects, such as a one-time training, can disrupt the flow of your L&D team’s day-to-day activities. Outsourcing these projects prevents business disruptions and delays.
Small, short-term projects may also require expert knowledge and tools. Whether you have one short project or several short projects coming up, managed learning services can handle them quickly and efficiently.
If you are looking for ways to streamline your entire training and development process to increase speed and reduce costs, managed learning services may be the solution you are looking for. Managed services make it easy to centralize all your L&D needs in one place, making vendor management simple. By working with a single partner for your learning and development projects, you can also more easily align each project with your organization’s goals and cut costs.
In addition to improving your learning strategy, managed learning services providers have the resources needed to create custom training programs that are both engaging and effective in improving employee productivity and performance. They also have the resources to handle small, short-term projects, helping you avoid a disruption in your L&D team’s work.
Whatever your learning and development needs, a managed learning services provider may have the resources you need to deliver high-quality training experiences that drive results.
