How Leveraging External Trainers Can Advance Your Companies Growth and Talent

The ongoing training and development of today’s workforce will play a crucial role in organizational growth, innovation and sustainability. LinkedIn Learning’s 2023 Workplace Learning report, Building an Agile Future, found that the C-suite’s top priority is motivating and engaging employees. Since it’s anticipated by the 2021 World Economic Forum Report that all employees around the world will need to be reskilled by 2025 and by 2030, more than 85 million jobs are anticipated to go unfilled because there aren’t enough skilled people to take them, organizations have to make talent development a key priority agenda. Investments made today by business leaders in their workforce will save millions in the future.

In addition to turning staff into organizational superstars, today, learning and development (L&D) teams, must find ways to enhance employee engagement in flexible work environments, create learning experiences that can serve as a recruitment tool, and move beyond knowledge transfer to truly expanding capabilities and shifting organizational culture. That’s a tall (and expensive) order for any well-staffed L&D department, and even more of a challenge when there’s a knowledge gap in your current L&D team or when you don’t have one at all.

To meet the current and growing demands to create learning programs that drive results, organizations must spend considerable revenue creating and ensuring their L&D departments are appropriately staffed. However, external trainers can save money by negating the cost of hiring and training new staff and utilizing external trainers can drive considerable behavioral changes necessary to see a lasting impact on learning outcomes. Here are three reasons why.

1. Expertise and experience

External trainers bring a wealth of expertise and experience to the table, which organizations can instantly access. According to a Training Industry, Inc. report, 87% of organizations using external trainers say they do so to access specialized expertise and knowledge. “External trainers can provide a fresh perspective and expertise that might not be available internally. They can help organizations stay current and competitive.” External trainers and consultants have worked with various organizations and have experience with what works and what doesn’t. Because of their real-world experience, they can offer valuable insights and advice on the most effective training methods and strategies in the volatile, complex, and ambiguous environment organizations are currently navigating. Their experience rolling out leadership development initiatives, as both a trainer and experienced leaders themselves, makes it easy to identify areas for improvement that they may have overlooked. By leveraging the expertise and experience of external trainers, organizations can save money, as much as 30%, and by avoiding costly mistakes and implementing best practices. A Society for Human Resource Management study found that 72% of organizations say that using external trainers and consultants helps them stay competitive.

Related: How Business Leaders Can Keep Employees Engaged

2. Customized training programs

There are five must-have elements in creating a leadership development program that drives results: customizable, measurable, integrated, applicable and experiential. Customized training helps the company’s workforce perform more effectively and efficiently, which leads to better results. To advance innovation, research by McKinsey urges L&D to stop creating one-off training that checks the box but doesn’t effect long-term change, but rather “invest in leadership-development experiences that are emotional, sensory, and create aha moments.” Learning experiences that are immersive and engaging are remembered more clearly and for a longer time. Human behaviors aren’t easily shifted overnight, and tailored training programs, customized to fit the organization’s unique requirements and goals, make employees more likely to retain and apply the information they learn in their work, resulting in better performance and increased productivity. Utilizing external trainers in this regard can also help break up groupthink and stagnation, dramatically affecting company culture and innovation. Personalized learning is no longer just a buzzword in L&D. It’s essential to how adults learn, engage today’s workforce and drive business outcomes.

3. Accountability and follow-up

External trainers provide accountability and follow-up to ensure practical training drives behavioral change. In Brandon Hall Group’s Transforming Learning for the Future of Work study, the number three challenge facing L&D teams is that “they don’t know how to measure learning well enough to ensure the future skills development needed will be achieved.” To create these on-demand learning experiences in response to the changing landscape in the workplace, L&D…