Three Tips to Give You Confidence When Selecting a Training Partner for Talent Outsourcing

As a training leader, your role is critical. You are tasked with delivering value and improving training efficiencies across your organization. With all eyes on improving employee engagement, reducing turnover, and providing employees with new skills, your team is instrumental in driving change.

With these rapidly changing priorities and new strategic learning initiatives on the horizon, partnering with a training provider can offer your team the additional bandwidth to deliver the training when needed. The question is: how do you evaluate and select a partner capable of delivering these important training programs?

Here are three tips to help you choose the right training provider:

3 Tips to Selecting a Training Provider

1.   A Partner and Trusted Advisor

A training partner should be a trusted advisor that your company can rely on to deliver the highest quality results that will help the business achieve their learning goals.

Partners should be capable of identifying gaps in learning and development (L&D) programs and making recommendations on how to best upskill and reskill the workforce. They should have the experience to evaluate a training program and prescribe the best approach that meets your training needs for a highly skilled workforce.

• What is their industry experience and reputation?
• Can they demonstrate success in similar projects?
• Do they align with your company culture and values?
• Are they approachable, available when you need them and committed to your success?

“The team at TTA crafted a solution for us quickly and efficiently by listening to our needs and placing a dedicated client manager as our partner. With a portfolio as vast as that of SAE International, our offerings change often.

It didn’t take the TTA team long at all to realize that we needed a real-time solution to manage the volume. Your team went to work enhancing your TTA Connect client portal which allows us to utilize our Learning Management System to run reports, enter the information into the portal, and to get the talent with the skillsets needed.”

– Pearl Walker, Senior Learning Operations and Delivery Manager at SAE International

A trusted partner will be able to identify additional ideas for optimal results, make you feel confident in your decisions, and be easy to work with.

2.   Diverse Talent Skillset

Training providers with a large network of L&D talent can offer the full spectrum of learning solutions, including learning strategy, instructional design and development, and training delivery, and are able to provide what your organization needs without having to rely on other training partners. This diverse on-demand talent means that you can offer more training in different modalities to address the various learning styles of your employees. This scalability and expertise allow you to provide the needed professional development for various topics and learning preferences by getting the right talent, at the right time, without having to adjust headcount or wait for in-house learning teams to be available.

Access to these high-quality specialists, like strategists, instructional designers, trainers, coaches, and project managers, means that experts are at your fingertips no matter what L&D project arises. The ability to tap into talent across many disciplines, such as soft skills, technology, human resources policies, and leadership development, eliminates the need to search for a new training partner for each project. Like flipping a light switch on or off, the resources are there when you need them.

3.   Proven Results and Reputation

Training partners should be subject matter experts with a history of credentials and experience working with clients in diverse industries and projects. They will be able to clearly articulate their success and share examples of similar learning initiatives, bring tested learning strategies, and communicate best practices. These past experiences will not only help anticipate and mitigate risks but also improve your learning outcomes.

A training partner’s reputation is another important piece of information to bear in mind. Consider the following resources to get an objective view of their history of excellence:

• Recommendations and referrals by peers
• Industry recognition and awards
• Thought leadership content
• Client references
• Proven talent qualification standards and process

Outsourced Training Partners Deliver Results

High-quality learning and development programs lead to higher employee motivation, lower turnover, and improved learner retention. Selecting the right training provider will give you not only the resources to deliver an effective learning program but can prove to be a smart long-term strategy.

Here are some additional questions to ask that will help you ensure a solid match with your organization:

• Can they offer best practices and deliver training programs designed to meet the specific needs of your organization or do they operate a “one size fits all type of program”?
• Can this partner respond quickly to surges in new training technology adoption?
• Do they have the resources available to handle a large-scale training project?
• Do they have experience working in a similar industry and for a comparable project?
• Can they deliver training in multiple modalities?
• How do they monitor quality throughout each project and adhere to standards of excellence?
• What is their experience in developing customized training?

To learn more about the benefits of staff augmentation and partnering with a training provider, contact us today.