Tips To Keep In Mind When Choosing An eLearning Outsourcing Partner
Almost suddenly workplace dynamics have changed. The whole world has gone online. Employees are working from home. Employers are struggling to ensure business continuity in the wake of the ongoing health and economic crisis. Amidst all this, L&D stakeholders are swamped with moving their entire learning setup online. While this could certainly be a tad bit easier for organizations that already had some online learning in place, it is certainly an uphill climb for those who were used to traditional classroom learning sessions. Even for the former, the primary focus right now is ensuring that they have the right infrastructure in place and the learners are motivated enough.
This is an unusually distressing situation and perhaps the most appropriate thing to do right now would be to consider outsourcing your eLearning development to a partner who is experienced, reliable and could help you cut down your costs without compromising on quality. Such a partner could reduce your business risk, take care of all your learning demands, and let you focus on your core business operations. It is perhaps time to think of outsourcing as a business strategy to sail through this pandemic and beyond. And talking about the essential qualities that an outsourcing partner should possess, I will try and answer it a little differently. While there are some non-negotiable qualities that I will touch upon, I am going to highlight 9 more that are very critical in a time like today, amidst this health and economic crisis.
1. Business Continuity Planning
Crises don’t always come announced. Who could have thought a virus like COVID-19 would just erupt one fine day and bring the whole world to a standstill? But now that it has, organizations can’t just sit and wait for it go away. Business needs to run as usual, with some workarounds and some contingency plans in place. We, at Harbinger Interactive Learning, always have a business continuity plan—workforce mobilization, infrastructural arrangements, and mishap readiness are parts of all our project plans.
2. Vision Alignment
A partner who is aligned with your vision is the closest to having your own trusted employees doing the work. They would be equally invested in the success of your brand and its vision. Harbinger, with its vision of "Transforming lives at every workplace" builds on a deep understanding of your business and strategizes accordingly. We stand with our customers in making their workplaces better, whatever the situation may be.
3. Strong Connect With Its Employees
The way a partner treats its workforce and connects with them speaks a lot about their values. Employees who know that their organization stands by them under any circumstances will leave no stone unturned in delivering on the organization’s plans and deliverables. And that is a very critical consideration when you evaluate an outsourcing partner. Harbinger believes in nurturing its workforce. We hold hands with our employees in both good and tough times and that speaks a lot about our employee connect.
4. Proactive Planning
A good partner will plan things ahead of time. Harbinger brainstorms and plans proactively rather than waiting for its customers to signal the next move. We do not just hear about our customers’ training strategies and goals, we will help them develop the same.
5. Agility
A partner who is flexible enough to adapt to specific or changing needs can help fulfill mission-critical objectives for its customers, especially in times of crisis.
Agility is displayed in Harbinger’s ability to ramp up or down the team size on short notice to meet a specific go-to-market plan or our willingness to quickly learn new technology to give a differentiated solution to a customer.
6. Accountability
A partner should take accountability for all their deliverables and moves. They should not indulge in blame games when a deliverable is not met due to any reason, instead, they should quickly act to resolve the situation. Harbinger believes in being accountable throughout. Not only do we understand the specifications of a project, but we also try to understand the business impact it can have, and we hold ourselves accountable to ensure that all desired goals are met.
7. Transparency
This is a key factor in developing effective relationships as partners. Harbinger gives a complete and transparent view of various activities to the stakeholders. We believe in constant and open communication to mitigate risks well ahead of time.
8. Quality
Any customer generally finds it annoying to invest time in testing, finding bugs, and then sending the final product back for fixes. This is even more relevant today when there are bigger issues to handle than quality testing. Harbinger’s dedicated quality assurance team ensures that every deliverable that goes out of the window is tested for the quality standards and that nothing is left to chance.
9. Learning Culture
Last but not the least, a partner who thrives on a culture of learning and innovation is the one to go for. This is a value that all Harbingers imbibe and practice. It helps our customers in tackling the constantly changing technology needs.
I want to cite a recent example before I conclude. A couple of days back, one of our global customers reached out to us to develop some urgent eLearning modules to train its workforce. The same day, a lockdown was announced in India, where Harbinger is based. Harbinger delivered everything to the customer within 3 days because it had a contingency plan in place. Our workforce was mobilized overnight. All backup infrastructural and other operational arrangements were put in action rapidly and the team could work as usual without being affected by the lockdown. The customer sent a special note of thanks to Harbinger for displaying such agility and efficiency even in an unprecedented situation. We are proud of the values that we imbibe as a team, and we will always be glad to serve our customers. A true partner will always elevate your game in times of crisis and otherwise.
On that note, I would like to hear your thoughts and experiences on how are you coping with your training plans and requirements amidst the ongoing crisis?
