How, why, and when to choose internal or external training providers

1. Training
Internal vs.
External
Eric VanAuken
How and when to choose
internal or external
training providers

2. Does my company & staff need training?
p.2
Good Question !!!
All companies benefit from having a well trained staff. You can chose to either hire
in the expertise or train to your needs. Both have positives and negatives.
Hire highly technical staff :
Up Side Down Side
•You get the expertise right away - You pay more for that expertise
• More seasoned senior people - You typically have an older workforce
• People know what to do - Adapting to new environment is more difficult
• People come with skills - Still need to keep skills current.
Hire staff for culture fit and general skills:
Up Side Down Side
• Lower up front wages - You will need to spend more honing skills
• People come in as blank page - Greater risk of not being able to fill the page
• Can be molded into what you want - More time and effort to manage
• Younger and new ideas - Need to refine the approach and skills

3. So what is the answer?
p.3
You should hire both the skilled and entry level employees.
•You will get a good mix of fresh new ideas tempered with experience.
•You will end up with a diverse workforce.
•One thing is true with hiring either or both of those populations, you need
to provide some sort of training or your will lose both of the populations.
•The fresh new faces need some skills training to become very effective
and the senior people need it to stay in the game and current with trends.
So where does that leave us with the question of
Internal vs. external training????

4. What are the considerations for both
p.4
• Do you have the availability of in house expertise?
• Do you have people who are not only technically great but do they know how
to teach and do they have time to do this and their day job.
• Do you have the facilities to support a training org?
• While you can do shop floor training for job elements, most professional and
skill type training require a more focused environment. That will cost some
money.
• Do you have a learning management system to assign and track training?
•While you can record training in many ways, If you don’t have a learning
management system (LMS) you will be tied typically doing only instructor led
training. There are many more ways and types of training out there that require
some tools that an LMS offers. But LMS’s are not free…… but they are not as
expensive as you may think either.

5. What are the considerations for both cont.
p.5
• Is there any regulatory/ISO needs driving the training?
• If your in a controlled environment you may need to have document controls,
attestations on training, training records, …etc All of these require a system that you
either have in the company or you can get from a vendor.
• Is your organization big enough to have a training group?
• This one is a bit simpler but it has some complexity as well. If you’re a small group of
less than 50 people you most likely don’t have the staffing and bandwidth to do most of
your own training. If your between 50 and 1000 you might be holding some key trainings
internally but looking to outsource much of what your looking for. If your bigger than 1000
you might want to start seriously looking at some sort of training internally
• Does your staff need certifications for their roles?
• If you need to have certifications for your staff, you most likely will not have that done
internally. Unless you have a trainer that is a certified training where they can provide
certifications for others, you most likely will need to look outside for the expertise.
• Does the staff need very diverse training?
• Many organizations might have a need for technical product training, interpersonal
skills training, sales training, …etc Its usually best to keep the internal training focused
in on the technical products you support. The softer skills and certifications are usually
best sourced from the outside experts.

6. So if you’re a Small Business where does
that leave you?
p.6
You are most likely best to use outside resources for your training.
•You wont have the upfront cost of building out a training structure.
•You can focus your teams on what they do best which is focusing on growing your
business.
• You wont have to carry the cost of a training org throughout the year. You only pay
what you need when you need it.
Remember that the closer you are to the people the less likely you will be perceived as
an expert on the subject. Thus getting the expertise from outside may be the best and
most cost effective form of training for your organization.

7. So if you’re a Mid size Business where
does that leave you?
p.7
You can start to think about doing some stuff inside the organization.
Remember that if you have some tracking or regulatory requirements you will need a
system to monitor them. In my book this is the first thing you may want to spend your
money on.
Get a basic LMS systems and use it to track and plan both internal and external
trainings ( most vendors will be able to interface with your LMS and provide the
training history on their courses)
You will still want to do the vast majority of your non product based training with
outside partners, This will allow you to focus on your business while providing the
most cost effective training available.

8. So if you’re a Large Business where does
that leave you?
p.8
You most likely will want to provide the key technical training on the products you support.
This is a key portion of your business and no one knows it better than you do. Thus you can
take some of your experts that know how to train people and assign them to be part time
trainers. This will enhance their skills and share the basics on to the next generation.
You will need to have your own LMS system and a team to manage it.
You will most likely want to go to the outside for some of your training that is not part of your
core expertise. This will allow you to focus in on what your organization does best and pull in
the experts for everything else.

9. In the end, Yes you do need to train your staff
p.9
If you have a training program either internal or external you will benefit from:
Better employee retention:
Training has been shown to be a major contributor to staff retention. The more vested you are in
their success the more they will be in your success.
Better employee attitude and behaviors:
When people feel they have the skills to do their jobs effectively they tend to be happier. When you
show them they are valued and you are investing in them they will have a better attitude and exhibit
better behaviors.
Better and easier recruitment:
It easier to recruit when you can show that you value your employees growth as much as they do.
No one wants to go to a company where things are stagnant.
Safer more independent employees:
When you have people trained on how to do things correctly they will be less dependant on others
and more productive.
Better satisfied end customers:
When your staff is happier and has the right attitude and feels secure in their company they will
pass that behavior and attitude on to your customers. Thus you get raving loyal customers.
It is a win win win for all.

10. Who and how to partner with for external training
p.10
There are many different avenues and organizations that provide great
training. You may want to look into a variety of the following
Local Colleges:
Typically the local colleges have great staff that cover a variety of key skills. Many of
them hire Industry leaders to provide shorter training courses for industry. This is a
growing business for many of the colleges. They can provide skills or targeted trainings
usually at a lower rate than many other national training companies or institutions.
They usually are more than happy to work with a business to adapt a course to meet the
businesses needs. I would go to the college for key technical skills.
Professional organizations:
If you need some targeted sales training, or industry specific training you might want to
check here first. There are many organizations that identify best practices and provide
training sessions on industry leading best practices. They tend to cost to join but once
you have the membership the training costs are typically reasonable. Like the colleges
you tend to get the industry experts/leaders.
Training organization:
If you need to hire a company to host an LMS and execute your training plans then it
may be best to go to a full service training organization. They will be more costly as
they are managing your training and data but it may be easier and cheaper than hiring
your own person and building out your own LMS.