Optimizing Training for Alignment to Business Needs

When it comes to developing human capital, technology companies, universities, and publishers have long been accustomed to ‘doing more with less’ as they seek effective, efficient ways to train their workforces, educate their students, and sustain their competitive advantage. Companies spend millions of dollars each year on training and development initiatives for customers, partners, and employees, yet many do not have a way to definitively measure whether trainings meeting the requirements of their business and how it impacts the company

Organizations can employ a strategic assessment to obtain clear picture of the current state of the business, the data to prioritize goals, and a roadmap for getting to the desired state. A Strategic Assessment is a key component of the planning process in order to obtain better, more strategic results by enabling companies to accurately evaluate current outcomes, triggers and root causes for them.

Strategic Assessments also provide the business case for training organizations to retool or completely redesign their learning capability to the extent that is needed to create a high return on investment in the future. This is a critical step when embarking on a managed training partnership, to ensure that clients will get the most out of the learning programs being managed.

The Strategic Assessment is an advisory service that provides for clients:

• A comprehensive analysis of their current training environment.
• A detailed picture of the required future state of training to achieve business goals.
• A business case, including the transformational, operational, technological and economic plans needed for achieving the desired future state.

What kind of company is a good candidate for a Strategic Assessment?

A great candidate comes from various types of organizations which support customer, partner or employee education. Likely organizations have questions around learning business goals, are having challenges responding to business needs, may not have enough technology infrastructure to support learning, and have a mandate to increase the impact of learning on the business.

For companies that 1) don’t know what they are spending on training and/or what value they are getting from the investment they are making, and 2) desire to increase the value, reduce the cost, gain access to best practice processes, technology, and services and transform their training capability to one that mirrors other lines of business in an organization such as sales, marketing and technology.

The Strategic Assessment answers the following questions:

• How much are we spending today?
• Where is the money going and what value are we getting from our current investment?
• How can we make training:
  • Better… more relevant and value adding?
  • Faster… available where and when we need it?
  • Cheaper… how do we ensure greatest value for the least cost?
• How do we ensure operational and financial control?
• How do we begin and gain organizational support?
• How do we achieve and sustain these improvements?
• How do measure the value of our future investment?

Position the Company for Future Success

Transforming an organization’s training capability is no small feat. NIIT examines each client’s operation to identify and prioritize areas for improvement and develop a plan for the changes that will drive improved operations, reduced costs and add greater value to the business.

Step 1: Evaluate the Current State

NIIT works closely with the client to obtain a clear picture of the current state of training being offered, as well as historical obtained versus desired results. The assessment process uses a business scorecard framework to evaluate five key areas of your training operation—people, processes, products and services, customer satisfaction/expectations, and results.

Research-based methodology helps determine the extent to which training:

• Links to organizational strategy.
• Facilitates effective learning.
• Operates efficiently.
• Produces business results.

Step 2: Provide Targeted Recommendations

Step 3: Put the Plan in Motion

The rapid pace of change requires companies to continuously evaluate business processes. NIIT’s strategic assessment provides clients with opportunities for improving or transforming their processes. Recommendations may include process transformation for improved value and efficiency.

Step 4: Report and Refine

A strategic assessment identifies the critical skills and roles that should be prioritized for training going forward to determine where to invest training dollars.

What Information a Strategic Training Assessment Provides

A Strategic Assessment provides many data points that can be used to retool or restructure training, as well as several benefits, both qualitative and quantitative:

• Validate training areas based on business data, and prioritize areas for future or continued training development.
• Prioritize investments in training that will develop key skill requirements.
• Ensure that training is aligned with business imperatives.
• Increased awareness of the power of training.
• Increased understanding of training decisions as critical management decisions.
• Clear, complete business view of a previously obscure function.
• Increased credibility for the training business.

To learn more about some of the customers we have helped realize their business goals, visit our Customer Page.