Penny Wise, Pound Wiser! What goes into planning an effective training budget?

Key Learnings

  • A strategic training plan allows organisations to achieve their training objectives with little compromise in the monetary department
  • The plan also helps justify budget allocations and training expenses

As challenging as it is to prepare a simple training and development budget, the task gets more complicated when a manager has to:

  • Prepare a zero-based budget
  • Defend every item, big or small, on the budget or risk losing it
  • Include creative solutions to increase returns on every penny invested
  • Devise strategies to do more with less

What training managers require at this juncture is guidelines on budgeting effectively. Experts recommend beginning with a strategic training plan.

Well planed is half done

A strategic training plan justifies budget allocations and training expenses. It also goes down well with sponsors and financial professionals. More importantly, the plan allows an organisation to achieve its training objectives with little compromise in the monetary department.

A strategic training plan is framed on the assumption that the way organisations conduct business will change completely in the coming years. The change will include a complete roll over of either personnel or technology, or both. This roll-over will force training departments to decide :

  • What needs to be learnt?
  • How learning will take place?
  • Whether employees require more training, mentoring, coaching or temporary
  • job assignments to acquire new skills, knowledge and abilities
  • If employees are looking out for new challenges
  • How seniors can mentor new high-potential hires

Spreading the word

With training decisions in place what follows are efforts to communicate the plan in an attempt to build consensus and gain organisation-wide support. While sharing the plan with colleagues, a manager can ask for their feedback and modify the plan if necessary. The plan can then be presented to immediate seniors for their approval. Some managers share their plan with key stakeholders as well. This though is considered a smart move.

General discussions or group meetings too can be held to communicate the plan organisation-wide. Communication ensures that the training budget when tabled attracts minimum flak or unfavourable reactions and avoids being vetoed. Moreover, managers who communicate their long-term training plans effectively are seen as forward thinking and able strategists.

Available budgeting strategies

There are four popular ways of preparing workable and realistic budgets.

  • Value budgeting: This form is used when a training manager works within a ’suspected’ or known budget. Budget estimates are based on what the organisation will support and what it will not.
  • Historical budgeting: Here a training manager reviews past budgets with similar size, scope and costs and establishes a new budget based on that.
  • Quote shop budgeting: Organisations often ask two or three credible vendors to submit budget estimates and chose the most appropriate one. This is a method of seeking quotes.
  • Benchmarking budgeting: Is used when peers in an industry share information on training, budget estimates and related costs. A training manager can then compile best budgeting practices in the industry to formulate the budget.

Metrics - a must

Having chosen a budgeting method, the strategic training plan recommends three measuring points to establish nearly accurate estimates.

These measures include:

  • Total training costs
  • Cost per training initiative
  • Cost per learner or participant

More planning

Another feature of an effective training plan is that it caters to various mandatory training programmes that include:

  • Regular training to enhance the standards , skills and knowledge levels of employees . Such training may include various professional certifications, software application courses, modules covering the latest safety and legal procedures.
  • Training that is absolutely necessary. This includes various compliance and legally mandated programmes, health and safety regulations including prevention of sexual harassment.
  • Development training that includes modules in conflict management, time management and team building. Such training is usually sought by a group of employees

Besides mandatory training programmes, a good plan provides for the training needs and capabilities gaps that emerge while developing the strategic training plan. Also it caters to the learning needs of employees looking for a change of responsibilities or new challenges.

Things in place

The budgetary methodology, metrics, mandatory training programmes and certain organisation specific add-on programmes provide a basic framework within which most budgets operate. What if a manager is asked to stretch his budget? The following low-to-no-cost options can help training managers do more with less.

  • Encouraging employees to mentor or coach subordinates and new hires. Get a person who is leaving to mentor his replacement.
  • Encouraging employees to read the top three books published in their subjects
  • Providing tuition assistance and reimbursement to encourage employees to enrol for short courses and distance-learning programmes
    • Subscribing to packaged tutorial programmes; they are much more economical

At times even off-the-shelf, formal training programmes address a bulk of learning needs efficiently.

Professional woes

Training professionals are often over-worked. They are either pressed for time or resources or both. It is common practice to hire consultants or buy training. An effective training budget makes provision for such initiatives and a training plan must account for them. The following guidelines ensure that organisations hire consultants or buy training in the most economical way.

  • Use professional networks or associations to identify appropriate vendors. Reputable consultants either belong to professional associations or are well known within the industry. Industry associations too are a good source. The chances of location vendors who in addition to specialising in training possess industry specific expertise are bright.
  • Go by others’ experience and recommendations on consultants. Asking peers for their opinion on consultants is the most economical and almost guaranteed way of finding consultants who best answer the organisation’s training needs. A peer’s real-life experience with a particular consultant puts him in a position to comment on a consultant’s knowledge, on-the-job performance, responsiveness and ability to deliver.
  • Select consultants as one would select new hires. It is important to be specific and unambiguous about what the organisation expects of consultants. While selecting consultants through vendors state needs and requirements clearly. It is advisable to ask for references, work samples or even a presentation.
  • Never fall for the low price gimmick.Keeping in mind that the lowest price option is not always value for money ensures that the organisation is not oversold something worthless. While not all credible, consultants are high-priced, so it is prudent to evaluate their intellectual level and track record.

Choosing the right budgeting method and metrics, adopting techniques to do more with less and buying right can help prepare a training and development budget that is difficult to reject.

National HRD Network India is an association of professionals committed to promoting the HRD movement, enhancing the capability of HR professionals, development of human resources through education, training, research and experience sharing.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/human-resources-articles/penny-wise-pound-wiser-what-goes-into-planning-an-effective-training-budget-1024865.html

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Human Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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