Who Do You Need on Your Training Team?

More and more, training is moving out of the classroom and into individual cubicles as the popularity (and functionality) of online formats grow. According to Training magazine’s 2015 Industry Report, of the 777 U.S. public and private sector companies with 100 or more employees surveyed, only around 46% of training was still being conducted in a traditional classroom setting. More than 26 percent took place exclusively online or through another computer-based technology, and 31.9% was delivered in a blended learning style, leveraging a combination of in-person, online, mobile, or social learning environments.

So what does that mean for you? It means that you need a different group of employees dedicated to setting up and providing your training opportunities than you did in the past.

Today, your training team should include the following roles in either part- or full-time capacity:

1. Chief Learning Officer: This individual is responsible for developing your training strategy and performance metrics, ensuring results are met, and developing mitigation plans when the training program is not experiencing the success anticipated.
2. Training Manager: This person oversees day-to-day training operations and ensures that training is delivered on time, on budget, and to the appropriate audiences.
3. Learning Strategist: The person in this position develops your agency’s learning objectives, works with senior management to determine current training needs, designs courses based around those needs, and finds subject matter experts who can deliver the appropriate training.
4. Videographer: You will want someone on your team who is responsible for filming your in-person training for future viewing, or who films content for pre-recorded trainings delivered online.
5. Sound: The person responsible for sound can record interviews with subject matter experts and edit sound bites used for computer-based training.
6. Graphic designer: This individual creates the visual elements for your online and pre-recorded trainings.
7. Training Facilitator: This person is responsible for facilitating any in-person or live online training, including introducing the subject matter expert, explaining the format for the training, and assisting with a question and answer period.

Your trainers for both your in-class and online events should be subject matter experts. Consider looking both within and outside of your agency to find those who would be most appropriate to teach about a certain topic, but ensure that the person delivering the training is well-versed in the nuances of your agency as it relates to the training topic. If you plan to offer a frequently recurring course (for example, one that all new hires must complete) consider either pre-recording the content and relying on your facilitator to ensure all material is covered and understood, or bring another member onto your training team who is the subject matter expert in that particular area.

Depending on the size of your agency and your budget, this probably sounds like a lot of people/time devoted to training. However, it’s important to remember that an investment in training is an investment in your agency’s best asset: the people. If you do not have the capacity to develop and maintain training operations, consider outsourcing your course development to GovLoop’s Learning Team.