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Keeping on with my recent theme around the spare capacity of training venues being sold to the open market in the form of hotel rooms, my next question is: Have HR teams, particularly my friends in Learning and Development (L&D), finally struck a killer blow to the 4am ‘last man standing’ bar session.

I am guilty like the best of us having made a pact with myself before dinner to be back in the room at 10pm to wade through the ‘homework’ for the following day. Then appear fresh as a spring bunny for the 8.30am start over coffee. But then your new best mate whether it is the marketing director or new sales executive, very seldom was it the boss (there’s a clue here), finds that inner self in you that has two pointy ears and glows bright red. Next thing you know its 4am, the barman has kicked you out and you’re on your zig zaggy way back to the ‘Stable block’.

Research says that, normally people remember about 15% of training content 48 hours after its been delivered, throw a 4am’er in and your well on your way to zero. You can just about remember that you’re in the ‘Stable block’ or was it the ‘Boat house’ and that’s the morning after.

Well this has been a bit of a ramble but necessary background to explain what I think is happening now. The L&D guys have got smart and used the current global crisis as a front to pave the way to cut interventions down to a one day ‘bite size’ , a coded way of saying no bar !. They have also elected to use the ‘on the job’ delivery technique so that the only bar you can sneak off to during the day is the Salad Bar in the canteen.

As a leader of a managed training services business, I have to support the professionalism but are we missing some of that human, social interaction that is so important to forming high performing teams by banishing the 4am into history?

At The Outsourced Training Company we provide a wide range of outsourced learning and development, managed training services for a number of large clients. As a result we have developed very close relationships with the Learning and Development (L&D) teams in the respective organisations. There remains a constant debate as to whether training is a necessity or actually forms part of the reward mechanism for the employee. Then there’s the additional issue as to who benefits most.

There are a number of training requirements that have to be delivered such as: mandated Health and Safety, licences to operate (e.g. Fork lift truck driving) and specialist equipment and processes. These are the kind of things that keep the executives out of court and need to be done.

But what about the more ethereal side of the fence, such as: transferable skills training, leadership, chartership (e.g. CIMA, SIPS etc). There’s an argument that all you are doing is arming your employee with a cracking CV to go and jump ship to the next better paid job as soon as it comes along. The other argument is that by investing time, resource and money in your employee you will get better productivity, efficiency, motivation and loyalty as a result.

We all know the way to measure it is through some form of complex Return on Investment measure usually based around the famous Kirkpatrick Cycle, but usually the analysis just doesn’t nail the simple truth. I find that internal L&D teams are so close to the trees that it’s difficult to fix and effective measure despite reams of Management information being on tap. As part of the service provision included within an outsourced training provider its key to have an objective set of ROI techniques and processes. We can usually get to the heart of it and tell you whether you’re paying for CV development or adding value to your operation.

As part of the job, I do have to travel around the UK. As a result I am always on the lookout for a bargain particularly when it comes to hotels. The days of ‘lording it’ in a Crowne Plaza or Marriott have gone. Driven by an eye on cost control and being able to offer competitive prices to our clients, oh and make some profit!

What I have noticed recently is a series of training venues offering their hotel style accommodation at very attractive rates. Usually they are the sort of place that’s been a family seat of some wealthy Victorian engineering magnate with more wings to the building than you can shake a stick at. I usually get a room in the ‘stable block’.

It then begs the question why are these places empty?

The first theory is that it’s a blip caused by the global downturn and the well publicised impact on training and development. In an effort to fill spare capacity the venues are selling off spare rooms cheaply. It’s all going to come back when times come good and the 4am marathons in the bar will become the norm for executives under intense training!

Second theory  is somewhat different .It is that organisations have had a good close look at the effectiveness of offsite residential training and said there’s a better way. It could be that they’ve brushed off the old Training Need Analysis and concluded that rather than relatively expensive offsite courses let’s focus on: short one day sessions, on the job and maybe even sprinkled in a bit of E/ blended learning for good measure.

I will take a sample over the next few months and keep you posted. In the meantime I look forward to seeing you in the deserted bars of these venues; otherwise it will be back to looking for bargain deals somewhere else.

No matter who wins the next election there’s a certainty that the Public Sector will have to make significant savings. With the focus on maintaining so called ‘front line’ services, it will be the back office functions that will be in the sights of the Public Sector executives. From personal discussions, I’ve had with a number of local councils .The target is in the region of   5-7% annual reduction , which when compounded over 5 years yields a 30-35% saving target. This calls for radical rather than incremental intervention.

Take the current UK training and development sector, the back office ie administration and management of training accounts for over £5BN of the total £32BN plus annual spend. My best guess is that at least 50% of that is in the public sector ie £2.5BN to go after in terms of introducing efficiencies through Private Sector involvement. The amount outsourced today is a tiny fraction of this potential. There is a great opportunity for the Private Sector to introduce the concept of an Outsourced Managed Training Services provision. From my previous blogs, this can realise a 30-35% saving, so you would think job done!

My concern is that it’s not going to be straightforward though , there’s lots of Sacred Cows in the Public Sector such as: pensions, culture , protected areas such as child welfare and of course the Executives report into an array of committees , boards and politicians.

So I will be banging the drum of how the private L&D sector can help the public sector through 2010 and do our bit to if not reduce and least stem the Public Borrowing Requirement. I will keep you posted!

Just when you think you have all the answers there’s something that comes from left field and gets you to challenge your views on life, the Universe and now Learning Management Systems (LMS). We all know there’s a wide range on the market with varying levels of functionality and complexity ….. And cost! Ranging from free’ish (e.g. Moodle to gold plated variants)

In the early days an LMS was a pretty straight forward piece of kit to understand. It was in simple terms a data repository that allowed the organisation to keep track of employee learning and development and training spend. They have developed since then to include: E-learning, talent management and performance management to mention just a few of the augmented offerings.

The left field incident is my sudden realisation that we now have this so called generation (Gen) Z marching its way into the employment pool over the next few years. As Gen X individual, I have a handle on Gen Y, but these new guys and girls do things differently e.g. point with thumbs rather than index fingers! They also interact with technology differently. My concern is that the ‘bog standard’ LMS will not allow the functionality and freedom Gen Z is looking for. So before I spend the next 3 days in endless research has anyone out there got some good ideas … please?