Training Strategy development for a large, multinational corporation
involving dozen of customized courses delivered to thousands.
 

The client: A large, multinational electronics company doing a major worldwide upgrade to their operations software..   Because of extensive customization of the software, “canned courses” were unfeasible, and over 8000 employees needed to be retrained and updated on the new functionality. 

The request: A worldwide training initiative which required the development and execution of dozens of courses to thousands of employees in multiple locations would be complex and cost millions.  Because of this, the client wanted to explore various training options and related costs.

The real challenge: The previous training was a qualified “disaster” costing the company millions in lost productivity and retraining costs.  It was imperative that this time they “do it right” but because of recent cutbacks, there were numerous budget constraints so training objectives had to be realized at minimal cost to the company.

The intervention: We began by doing a thorough training needs assessment of how many employees, at what locations, needed how much training by which date.  After determining that “role based” (as opposed to “application based”) training was the most efficient, we then worked with the technical and business project teams to scope the depth of application usage, upgrade differentials, and new customized functionality to determine the scope of material development.  While we solicited and reviewed bids for training material development from both traditional (training writers) and cutting edge (software generated material) sources, we assessed the existing training infrastructure, recommending modifications and the ability to implement web based training for remote users. 

The results:  We presented the client with a detailed training strategy with several variations on material development and delivery.  We clearly outlined the advantages, disadvantages, and related costs of each approach, as well as suggestions on how to integrated with other existing project plans.  With detailed information of the scope of the training effort, associated costs, the client was able to determine the best possible training strategy for meeting the needs of its workforce within the proposed training budget.