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WELL, IT'S THE FIRST QUESTION ANYWAY. HERE ARE 10 OTHER QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN DECIDING WHETHER TO OUTSOURCE YOUR TRAINING PROGRAMS OR KEEP THEM IN-HOUSE.
Outsourcing is familiar territory to training professionals who outsource courses and purchase products from services when it isn't cost-effective or timely to develop them in-house. As training professionals grapple with how to most cost-effectively pursue their learning and development strategies, outsourcing is a solution they're using more and more.
A recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) revealed that 57 percent of the HR and training professionals surveyed outsource all or portions of their training and management development programs. The top reasons respondents listed for outsourcing included cost savings, time savings that allow them to focus on business strategy, and improvements in compliance and accuracy.
Training managers are also throwing more of their money into outsourced solutions. According to research firm brandonhall.com, Sunnyvale, Calif., most training departments spend up to two-thirds of their budgets buying off-the-shelf training and hiring outside consultants or instructors to deliver courses.
When is it right for you to outsource? To help make these decisions easier, here's a list of 10 questions from the experts to help you determine whether to outsource or go it alone-whether it's to create content, introduce a training program, or launch a learning management system.
1. What are the capabilities of your training organization? Do you hire it or grow it? Capability is the first factor to consider when deciding whether to outsource training programs, says performance consultant Judy Hale, president of Hale Associates, Downers Grove, Ill. "Does your staff know enough internally that you can grow the capabilities, or are the capabilities so unique that you need to hire them from the outside?"
Training professionals must take time to answer the capability question, says Bill Rothwell, professor in the workforce education and development program in the College of Education at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, where he also oversees the graduate program in human resource development and employee training. "Take a hard look at what you have and don't have in terms of competencies in your organization," he says. "What skills do your employees have that you can transform into training?"
It's important to focus on...