If you’ve been weighing the pros and cons of hiring a corporate training consultant or scheduling a dedicated workshop for your workforce, take a brief moment to peruse some of the illuminating facts and figures shown below:
- On an annual basis, ineffective workshops and seminars cost businesses upwards of 13 million pounds per 1,000 employees.
- Since 2012, over 74% of corporate professionals feel as though they aren’t reaching their full potential.
- 56% of HR managers believe that training and development are essential processes, but 90% of these supervisors aren’t able to provide the necessary provisions or programmes.
- More than 33% of new hires leave their organisation within the first year due to a lack of engagement and/or deprived training protocols.
- The cost of losing an employee during his or her first year can be up to three times the individual’s base salary.
As you can see by now, it’s important to occupy and engross your workforce with germane updates and pertinent training workshops, especially if your primary goal is to increase onsite productivity whilst simultaneously decreasing your employee turnover rate. But as you might imagine, hiring a reputable corporate training firm is much easier said than done, particularly when taking into account the seemingly infinite number of consulting companies that claim to provide industry-leading services nowadays.
However, you can avoid much of the hoi polloi associated with hiring a cutting-edge training consultant simply by putting in the effort to vet the local landscape ahead of time. In this regard, feel free to use the intuitive checklist shown below to help you separate the contenders from the pretenders during your research.
Accreditations
If you’re interested in scheduling an onsite management course, for instance, it’s in your best interests to make sure every consulting firm on your shortlist is endorsed and accredited by the proper regulatory agencies:
- British Accreditation Council (BAC)
- The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM)
- The Institute of Supply Chain Management (IoSCM)
The Actual Consultants
When hiring a particular firm to impart knowledge to your workforce, you’ll obviously want to ensure that the organisation’s proctors, instructors, and lecturers are qualified, experienced, and wholly competent. As such, every single company on your shortlist should feature a robust in-house team of corporate veterans, the most prominent of which are shown below:
- HR specialists
- Oil and gas authorities
- Expert project managers
- Finance aficionados
- Award-winning collegiate professors
- Independent lawyers
- Commercial banking professionals
- Digital marketing mavens
- Former directors, CEOs, administrators, and other executives
Other Salient Details
Apart from ensuring that all of your potential consultants are accredited and qualified, you’ll want to look out for the following aspects as well:
- Wide array of specialties, ranging from advanced administration and law to human resources, operations management, public relations, sales, and more.
- Intuitive website, with the ability to search for available courses by subject area, course date, or even course location.
- Up-to-date company blog directly on the homepage, allowing you to learn and augment your aptitudes while on-the-
- Downloadable training programme, which essentially allows you to glean the consultant’s modus operandi.
- Full list of past clients and corresponding case studies
With this information in hand, you’re more than ready to pick a renowned consulting partner and finally bring your company into the 21st century of commerce, so get started on your research as soon as possible!