Efficiency is the name of the game, no matter which business you’re in. In today’s hypercompetitive economy, every organisation is trying to get the maximum results from minimal input. In terms of learning and development, organisations are looking for ways to develop the capabilities and skill sets of their employees without wasting unnecessary time, money and resources.

So how do you maximise the return on investment when it comes to corporate training? Every organisation varies however, there are a few different strategies you can employ to help you get optimal results from your Learning and Development budget.

Choose the right training

This may sound like a no-brainer but it pays to have a serious think about the capabilities your organisation needs to develop before you book a training program. If you’d like to deliver projects more consistently and efficiently, project management may seem like the obvious choice. However, poor communication and a lack of leadership skills could be the underlying reason your previous projects have been hampered. Talk to your management team first to find out where training programs will have the greatest impact.

Choose the right participants

Does every employee within your organisation require the training, or can you develop strategic capabilities by selecting the right employees from different departments? At times, a one-size-fits-all approach to training doesn’t always deliver optimum results as specific skill development may not be applicable to every team member. Choose the staff members who need to develop their knowledge in a specific subject area and ensure they know they have been hand-picked, as this will naturally boost their engagement with the training.

Use scale to your advantage

If you decide you’d like to put entire teams or departments or even your entire organisation through a training program, you can use these large numbers as an opportunity to customise a training program. Small numbers of participants are probably more suited to buying an off-the-shelf training program where they’ll share a classroom with other attendees from other organisations. Large numbers of participants mean your organisation can have a program contextualised so that it’s potentially delivered in a shorter timeframe or even delivered on-site at your office to cut down on the time that your people are away from their work.

Measure ongoing learning outcomes

Here at AIM, we adopt the learning principles of 70:20:10 when we design our training programs for clients. These principles are based around the idea that organisational learning works best when people gain 70% of their knowledge and skills from on-the-job experience, 20% from mentoring, coaching and learning from others, and 10% from formal training. Put simply, learning shouldn’t stop as soon as you leave the classroom. That’s why we encourage organisations to adopt formal and informal feedback and assessment measures for tracking ongoing learning outcomes back in the workplace.

It's important to ensure that you’re getting value for money from your Learning and Development programs. If you want to run a more efficient and effective organisation, your people need the right skills and knowledge, at the right time, in order to get the results you need for ongoing success.

Every business is different and so is our approach. AIM’s customised corporate learning and development solutions are as unique as the challenges you face. Matching the right skills to organisational needs and backing this up with an investment in learning and development can achieve business success and an engaged and motivated workforce.