 a little bit of magic |
learning and development: how clued up are we?Customers are incredibly important in any industry and so understanding their needs is vital. Obvious? Yes! Yet what a customer sees as important when choosing a learning and development provider is not always fully understood. It is for this reason why Righttrack Consultancy, a learning and development specialist with over 20 years’ experience has conducted its fifth annual satisfaction survey. The survey asks learning and development departments what is important to ensure that an organisation’s development expectations are met and ideally exceeded. Over the past five years, respondents have been asked to rank importance on a diverse range of criteria when considering selecting a training provider. The criteria range from price, to past industry experience, to a provider’s client list. The top five selection criteria have remained relatively constant over the past 5 years, and 2008 is no exception as the table below shows:
The top five aspects are not industry secrets as it is common knowledge that many organisations are favouring bespoke learning solutions from well-established external training providers and as such are choosing development solutions that match their learning requirements. Although price is still an important aspect when selecting an external provider, thankfully the days when training providers were selected based solely on price are long gone. This finding is supported with the importance respondents placed on the quality of the learning and development and the capability of the training provider. However, price is likely to play a slightly larger role while there is still business uncertainty. As the table shows, one of the greatest movers in this year’s results is the increase in importance placed on the degree of customisation. More and more organisations are demanding programmes that are relevant and focused around their organisation. Learning and development is becoming a popular way of showing loyalty and rewarding employees by investing in their skills and so ensuring that the development energises and motivates employees has become a top priority, hence the need for customisation. The importance of investing in learning and development for organisations is constantly growing and a key reason behind this is largely due to the skills gap, which has resulted in organisations recruiting candidates with perceived potential, as candidates who directly possess both the skills and experience required are in short supply. Understanding what customers want is a basic business principle and in an intangible service market, meeting customers’ needs is imperative for training providers to be successful. Righttrack has always put the customer at the heart of all its business, hence why they receive at least 4/5 for the following:
Ensuring that learning needs are exceeded is not just beneficial to the individual and the organisation but to the UK economy as a whole – a skilled workforce is a successful one. -End- |
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