A strategic training program requires continuous and consistent management to succeed. Following a step-by-step process will benefit the development of your customers, channel partners and your entire organisation.
Highly effective training program management takes time and care, but standing out against the competition and bringing value to your customers and partners will be worth the effort.
Whether you’re looking to outsource to a team of experts for support or just reviewing your in-house approach, we’re here to guide you with your training program management every step of the way.
Why Is Training Program Management Important?
Especially in the early stages of developing your training strategy, formally setting out how you intend to manage your program is crucial to its success. By keeping people engaged and continuously delivering support, your learners will experience real, lasting development, rather than a short-term fix that won’t stand the test of time.
A common issue with training programs is that they are designed, launched and then forgotten. Dedicating the right resources, energy, and people to a long-term strategy will drive real growth within your organisation.
With new products and ever-changing sales strategies coming to market, updating the training program to meet these new demands is a constant need. A stale program is ineffective and won’t serve the needs of your partners. Engagement will fall sharply.
What Elements Must Training Program Management Include?
Effective training management must incorporate these key areas:
LMS Administration
Firstly, a learning management system (LMS) is software for creating and delivering training programs. For an LMS to run smoothly, it requires the assistance of competent LMS administrators.
An LMS administrator takes responsibility for the LMS and acts as a point of support day-to-day, as well as monitoring ongoing stability and performance. They will usually be involved in defining user roles, building custom certifications, providing learner feedback, loading content, creating learner pathways and supporting users and learners alike.
The LMS administrator has a key role as this is where collaboration between cross-functional teams occurs. They need to communicate with participating personnel and sustain a solid relationship with all teams and sectors within the organisation, as well as the project manager.
This role also feeds into the program creation and review process, as the administrator will have their finger on the pulse of how exactly the LMS can serve to satisfy the needs of everyone involved.
Related reading: Outsourcing vs In-House – Which is Best for Delivering Your Training Program?
Training Program Updates, Refreshes & New Courses
This is the most critical element to successful training program management. A training course with huge potential can fall flat over time due to a lack of care and attention – constant upkeep is needed to keep course content fresh and relevant. Moreover, if new products and updates are released, updated course content should be created to ensure knowledge is kept up-to-date.
With this process, it’s usually beneficial to utilise the knowledge and expertise of seasoned professionals combined with professional instructional designers, particularly those with experience in designing, training, and managing a program, as their specific knowledge will help you consistently create engaging content that meets the learning objectives.
Good course management doesn’t stop once your program is released – ensuring you’re continuously trying to level up your existing service or pivot to provide even better training will ensure continuous improvement, rather than coming to a standstill with your training.
Learner Support
Another element often overlooked when running a training program is learner support. A successful training program is defined by learner success, which requires continuous support and guidance to thrive.
Providing a fast response support service to your learners will enable them to stay motivated and assured in their training, charging your process with a level of trust that will benefit relationships, communication and connectivity.
Customer Support
Partners and customers require consistent support to make programs run smoothly. These elements include:
- Assistance with booking
- Publishing courses
- Streamlining and updating hierarchies
- Advice on the best courses to take
- Advice on optimising the training budget
- Guidance on learning paths
- Creating custom reports
eCommerce Management
Budgeting and funding can sometimes be troublesome to secure when planning a training program. To solve this challenge, you can sell your courses online to generate another revenue stream. Of course, this will require a degree of management. Some tasks that need to be covered are processing payments and refunds, creating discount and promotional codes, raising invoices and reporting on revenue.
You also need to think about how these orders are accounted for. Will your finance department have the capacity to manage and report on these relatively small individual orders? If not, you might look to training management outsourcing that will manage this aspect of the eCommerce function on your behalf.
The revenue generated from selling courses either becomes additional profit or can be reinvested to expand your training further (and even enable your program to become self-funded).
Related reading: Developing Channel Partner Training Programs on a Tight Budget: Tips and Strategies
Regularly Report & Monitor
Training and development initiatives should always be measured and evaluated so you can assess what’s working and what needs to be adjusted. Tangible results can easily be measured through things such as:
- Feedback
Possibly the most important factor, regular feedback is crucial to assessing the success of your training. Conduct surveys or arrange interviews to monitor opinions and the impact of your program continuously.
- Behaviour
Monitor what has been learned through behaviour assessment and evaluation. Has their learning led to an increase in sales? You can use learning analytics here to collate development data.
- Business outcomes
This can be measured through your actual business performance, for example, sales, units sold and market share.
Steps Required to Manage Your Training Program
When tackling your program management, consider the following steps:
1. Prioritise Needs
First things first – identify your training objectives. This will provide you with the strategic direction needed to get started and allow you to produce a coherent plan that breaks down your goals into a manageable and structured order. Use this time to set out your budget and decide what time, costs and resources are required before your program launch.
2. Set Budget
Usually, budget requirements depend on whether you opt for an in-house or outsourced approach to delivering your training. Although it might sound counter-intuitive, seeking out the help of an external company to support your training and development strategy could be the more cost-effective option.
With so many aspects to think of, sticking to a budget can be a problematic task when relying on an in-house team. Outsourcing gives you the security of a set budget that eliminates the risk of overspending. Every cost will be discussed in initial meetings by specialists with experience in what expenses will be required for your particular goals.
3. Delivery Method
Identifying your training program delivery method will form the basis of your entire strategy. This will all depend on your training needs and resource requirements.
Depending on your chosen method, you will need to consider your approach to online learning – will your training be entirely online? Are you going to stick to classroom-based learning? Or would a blended approach suit?
4. Create Courses
Course design is fundamental to the user experience. A course must be engaging to encourage the learner to participate, which will make a difference in the learner’s knowledge retention.
Learning material has to offer value, especially in cases where courses are being sold, so make sure your courses are executed are engaging, interesting and relevant.
5. Organise Ongoing Administration & Management
Ensure you have the necessary touchpoints in place so your users, customers and learners feel supported throughout the entire process. Consider onboarding, technical, user, strategic, and account support. The people in charge of management will make up the fabric of your program – they’ll be the ones your project managers, customers and learners come to for help and guidance, so you must get the right roles defined before you decide to launch.
Related reading: Everything you need to know about our Managed Learning Services
6. Create a Launch Plan
Before the program launch, think about who will be using your training – what will they find the most useful? Consider the following:
- At what point will your learners require training – for example, before a customer uses your product or service, or immediately prior, meaning it would need to be available on-demand?
- Will you use pull tactics that direct your learners to support pages when necessary, or push tactics via hints, tips or videos through emails?
- Does training need to be integrated into your software or service portal, or should you utilise a separate website?
7. Create an Ongoing Promotion Plan
If you’re planning to sell your courses online to external audiences, it’s vital to have a secure promotion plan in place. Some strategies to consider include:
- Brand loyalty: Offer discounts or offers to repeat customers or members.
- Focus on SEO: Improve your search engine ranking to get more traffic to your website displaying your learning services.
- Trial course: Include a free trial of your program to give users a taste of what they can expect and entice more course sales.
- Blogs: Creating written content won’t just boost your SEO, but will also educate prospective users about why they should invest their time and money into your educational tools.
8. Evaluate & Pivot
Allowing time and space for regular updates and reviews of your training program will elevate it to another level. Successful development programs require consistent care and attention to react to ongoing learner needs and changes in development requirements. Let your learning evolve and adapt from the continuous feedback you receive.
Now you have learned how to manage your training program successfully, take your program to the next level with Wahoo Learning’s Managed Learning Services.
Discover how our services can help you achieve your training goals and maximise the impact of your training program. Read ‘Everything You Need to Know About Our Managed Learning Services‘ and take the first step towards success.
