Is online training right for you?

hey welcome to the colab podcast my name is ryan mcpherson ceo and co-founder at co-assemble introducing the genius behind the product jude novak cpo and co-founder as well and we're here to talk all things online training awesome enjoy ryan we're here today to talk about when's the right time to you know implement online training into your business i think for us it came at a certain point like when we got to a certain scale i think when we had over like 10 people in house it was kind of became a bit kind of cumbersome to get people to sign paper documents whether they read our policies or procedures and all that kind of stuff but like not every business is the same i know that you talk a lot to a lot of customers um being the ceo like what kind of um points i guess stage is in a business do you feel like is a is kind of common across businesses to start implementing online training yeah so i think it comes back to you know why we why are we doing this you know why are we actually thinking about online training and you know what has been the the trigger for me to start thinking about that and you mentioned size can be one of those reasons so you know we've really gotten to a point now where we can't do face-to-face training uh you know uh both efficiently or cost effectively or just taking too much time out of the business i think one of those one triggers one of those main reasons for us is that because we are an international business we have offices in in denver and also in newcastle and staff in sydney and um queensland yep yeah they're kind of critical the remote nature can be a second trigger i think also like you know businesses really should start to see if education is playing a role in performance at their business and that can be another trigger so you know is the training not actually delivering a good roi for my for my team so you know we're just doing the training that's that's great but you know is it actually delivering a great result for the team and am i getting that back into my business so you know if i was to to think about some of the triggers that might start to to get a business to think about getting into online training firstly there might be that scaling issue so you know am i to size now where it's just becoming cumbersome as you said and inefficient to do face-to-face training and i'm thinking about what tools and technology exist out there for me to start to leverage the second one might be around that you know is is the training that's being done today you know working is it actually having the effect that i that i want it to and could i get a better result using a technologies maybe a little bit more modern bit more engaging maybe it hits the the learner at the right time and i'm able to utilize different method you know to do that and then i think the third one you know is you know really thinking about okay training in this in this space for me is going to be an asset it's going to be something that i really want in my business and i really want to start to drive forward in that idea and start to build the foundations so you know i might start thinking about looking for a tool i might start thinking internally about who would own this in my business you know the strategy of actually putting training together um so there's a number of factors that you'd probably start to consider yeah i mean so i know that you've been doing this podcast with some of um our customers can you point to anyone like a specific customer where they kind of had that breaking point where they they knew that they needed to start well i think if you're a regular listen to the podcast you would have heard our la zoo you know uh podcast recently where you had you know kieran who was a training manager for the volunteer program she really you know talked about a lot you know that first instinct was quite daunting to jump into this experience you know and thinking about you know what was the right platform how was i going to build it will i have the time do i have the budget and these are all considerations that businesses need to think about so you know i think a lot of our customers when they're coming along and they're thinking about this process you know when is the right time to start thinking about online training if they think about you know is it is it taking out is the training that we're doing today or the lack of training that we're doing today you know really resulting in a lack of performance in my business and if that is the case then i think it's a good time to start thinking about not just online training but ensuring that you've got you know a training mechanism in your business that really has your team and your staff understanding what the you know what they need to do in their everyday role right and if you then put a lens across that with online you know you get a lot more efficiency around you know the scalability the remote nature of it and obviously covert comes along and you know challenges everyone around how they're going to disseminate information and knowledge right and you compare that and you go okay well at this point in time i don't feel like my training is delivering enough to my team but secondly i want to do it in the most efficient engaging and fun way possible then probably that's when you start to think about technology right and you start to reach out you google you know what are the tools out there that do this really really well who else is doing this and i think you start looking at customer case studies and you start you know reading blogs and you know and hopefully listen to podcasts like this that give you an insight to say okay it is time for me to start thinking about this but i think yeah if we center around those three things you know i'm building a future of education in my business that will deliver business results that's the first one the second one is my current systems are just not there and they're not really delivering and the third one is i really want a scalable fun colorful engaging component to my training and i'm probably going to need to look to tell you know technology to do that so just on something you you spoke to earlier about like people are googling in more specifically like where do where do people go to find out about like these platforms because obviously co-assemble is an online training platform but it isn't the perfect solution for everybody so that is there like a number of places they can go and compare different platforms i think it's interesting you know before we get into exactly where those platforms are it's it's interesting to break down some of the the people who would be looking for this solution right so let's let's run a scenario right so i've realized i'm the ceo of a business and i've realized i've got to 10 staff and my training as i said has become cumbersome right it's it's not delivering the roi and i'm looking at implementing online training my business right do am i the one out there looking and going okay out there there might be 20 tools i don't know this space if that's the case i can go to great you know places like e-learning industry i can go to a traditional you know blog that tells you about you know how training works inside larger businesses but you know i'm a smaller you know business business operator i'm probably a bit more agile we're in the technology space so is that going to work for me maybe not so therefore i might start searching where i find other tools i might go to places like capterra or you know g2 crowd where i can compare a lot of different you know technology platforms in one place and read reviews and i think sometimes a lot of the best places you'll find out whether a technology is going to suit your company is to find lots of reviews where you've got other customers potentially talking about their experience and it matches right and so let's now think about a bigger business and you know their problem isn't necessarily the scalability or the cumbersome nature their problem is that their face-to-face traditional model is not working necessarily for them they want that better roi they want a more engaging you know they might look in different places they might have a sales process that they have to go through a procurement process that they have to go through so they might start reading blogs they might start reading industry news they might start you know talking to other people you know referrals is often you know one of the best ways you can find it so i think depending on the the user case and the person that's coming to this first step in their progress you know like so if i'm just a team manager you know that i i'm thinking about this in my business but i don't necessarily have business approval yet i haven't got my my full cio on board but i'm thinking this could be cool maybe i will start to look at uh you know ads for example on instagram as i'm sitting there at night and i'm like you know i've got this course that i can't do anything with and all of a sudden an ad something like co-assemble pops up and said create your first course today in less than 20 minutes then you know i might click that ad and find that that's really interesting so i think depending on where you are in the journey i think probably it depends on where you look i guess what kind of experience do you think people want to deliver to their staff if they're if they're training staff like what do you think's important well again i think it comes back to why we're putting this in place right so if you're thinking about putting your first online training in place and potentially it's because the existing training's not working right so we keep coming back to those three elements right that might be because you've got really negative learner feedback right so staff members are walking around grumbling saying that training was boring or you know didn't really change my role it didn't really excite me about what you know the company's doing so you're getting both you know formal feedback and probably also a little bit of social feedback coming back through the business saying you know we're we're investing in training we're spending the time we're putting it out there but the results don't seem to be there you know i've still got team members turning up and not performing their role even after doing the training so we know that that's one area where it's like okay how can i improve that do you think that is kind of caused mainly by our kind of lifestyles these days like we're all addicted to technology at the moment and um where everybody feels really time poor do you think the fact that using technology for online training makes kind of that traditional um method of delivery kind of redundant yeah it just doesn't work there's always a place for the voice in training and i think that face face-to-face or classroom training has always provided what we call a voice right so someone of knowledge that's in the room i think what the the problem with obviously in a year like covert and you know if you're thinking about starting this process is that how do i capture that voice and put that into online training in a way that's going to be effective right so they're often thinking cool this is not working for me but you know my my millennials in my business or everyone that's you know looking and using technology every day probably wants this to be done differently but i don't necessarily have to know how to do that i'm sure there's a technology out there how do i find it what does it look like what does it cost they've got a lot of those questions when they're first starting to think about coming on board with an online training system so i think covert to you know this year has absolutely changed the approach right so it's probably forced a lot of businesses to really think about how they're going to transform their training online and and that's one thing but i also think that the employees are probably screaming out for it as you said they're sitting there saying maybe i want to do this training on the bus home right i don't want to be pulled away for an hour and sit in a room for example and and maybe that's why the reasons you know that the training is not necessarily working so i think at the core you know today we're talking about why would we start this why what's the trigger inside my team or business to start thinking about utilizing online training it can be that your traditional training is not working that's one reason the second might be that you know your technology that you have that you are using you know google sheets for example or google docs or you know you're sharing a lot of information you've got no idea where it's all going you're losing some of it it's not giving you any you know analytics or visibility over whether the training's having impact that could be a second reason how do i piece together all this information out there in a really concise way so i'm actually delivering information online i'm feeling like i'm you know really helping my staff in a way that's technology you know based but to be honest it's actually hurting them because they can't find the information they don't know exactly where to go looking for it so there's a number of reasons i guess that can really trigger this decision if we think about like that as a process and then the third one as i said is you know keep coming back to it is i want to build a stronger training business you know a stronger training arm of the business i want to have effects long term and i think putting a technology in at the the start that thinks about okay thinks about basically scalability from day one but start small what's the first course for example what is what am i going to build out on day one that i could take today that isn't working in either a traditional form in a google doc and i could transform that today to have a bigger effect on that employees uh you know week for example what is that first course yeah how do you how do you this is probably a tricky question but how do you think um people are measuring their the return on investment after they've implemented online training yeah i think you know it's interesting online training's becoming cheaper and cheaper over time right so the actual roi is getting bigger and bigger if you get it right so you know imagine that you're a 20 team today but you you're envisaging that you're going to be 50 by the end of the you know the end of the year for example right so you buy a technology today that is priced at x and gives you you know the capability to train those 20 people right but all of a sudden over time you're able to take that to scale with online training to 50. automatically the price necessarily hasn't changed but the value in your business has changed dramatically you've now trained you know almost 2x on the amount that you originally trained if that training is resonating you're starting to see analytics that show you know that person is able to perform their duties better they're safer at work whatever the reason that you're actually utilizing you know that training for then you're now getting a return that's hard to measure right we actually find this when we talk to customers you know it's easy to look at analytics and say okay everyone went through the course we know that they engaged with it but then how do we actually find that that had an impact in your business yeah that's the tricky bit right 100 we work a lot with companies on that one element right so in the initial conversation when people are starting to think about online training they're like cool i'll just think about the tech i'll get the platform in place i'll get my course up and i'll share it and and that's job done right i think what we're finding is that you know to really see a big impact in the business you need to reiterate on those courses you need to find out you know does that employee now for example feel safer at work because they've been through that course or you know do they know how to return to the office after covert in a in a manageable way that doesn't end up with you you know in a medical situation that you don't want to be in so we need to be able to start to measure the impact post the course delivery and i think you know online training can give you a lot of ways to disseminate and allow that training to go out the door if you get the right tools you can start to see that impact come back when people are doing refresher training or they're basically you know they're showing that they want to do more training and maybe requesting another course or i want more information on that topic that we covered the other day and so that's when you start to see that dual impact in the business and all of a sudden it doesn't come about price it's actually now being a return into your your functionality of the business yeah so ryan let's try and kind of just pull this back a bit and unpack a little bit more of what we're trying to cover here which is like when do people actually know when it's the right time can you describe a customer journey like a customer journey that you know of that really tells that story really well to their listeners yeah i think we had a really fast growing technology company and it's interesting when you talk about fast growing technology companies you assume that they're they've really got all the technology that that is needed to run a business but one of the funniest things about a fast-growing technology company is that the last thing they think about is is training they're moving so fast they're very agile you know information delivery to their team can be some sort it's ad hoc sometimes and things are moving so fast that the one thing that they have actually forgotten a lot about is structuring that mentoring that coaching and that and that that capability and i think if we think about a customer you know we have a technology-based com company who was getting to the size of around 350 cs agents so customer support agents right and obviously this is a large company but it was one team member inside that customer success area who was starting to think okay you know my team knows a lot about our product right but every day we're changing we're adapting there's things coming from head office on strategy how do i start to educate them more fluently right and so they actually started to look around at uh you know what was out there and they looked at the traditional lms's the traditional learning management systems they went to you know the big the big end of town if that makes sense and what they found was that they had to buy a whole of organizational solution they had to buy you know something that was going to cost a lot of money it was going to be big implementation but here they are there they're one internal team member are training you know they've got a lot of team members but they're they're a manager they're thinking about imparting knowledge just in terms of their team and so they started to look outside of that and started to look at technologies that were a little bit more innovative a little bit more fun to use for example but they were really thinking about you know the reason that they needed this in their business was because their team was scaling to such a large size but they had no real structural way to be able to impart knowledge from their own individual team management perspective not from the company's perspective and i think you know if you looked at how they bought they basically went and googled a whole bunch of different platforms signed up for free trials for many of them went through a sales process for many of them what it come down to is that they had one course that they knew that they would like to start with right they actually had one one course it was based around talking to customers right they had a number of agents who didn't know quite when to you know get funny with customers online when to hold back when to get serious and they were really thinking about that one element to train their team and they they come with that one thinking and and that allowed them to find a solution that was a little bit more niche smaller to start with now they've got the entire business using the platform and that's because throughout that process they found how to use the tool they kind of found a win in the first they found that that created that first course they trained 450 people very quickly almost in the first two weeks in that first course even though it was only you know ten five minutes worth of content and then they were able to kind of go okay we have a mechanism to be able to create something of power quickly you know we have a mechanism to share that with a vast team and we found that through just investigating what was out there and what was the right fit for our type of business and what was the right fit for me as an individual thinking about buying a solution so key to that just from listening to their key to that probably is about starting small correct yeah like starting small kind of having a it's almost like a um like a proof of concept really yeah yeah um but you can always start small by be creating one kind of you know capsule of knowledge let's call it but then you can share it with as many people as you like and you know more than anyone that you know most customers that come into co-assemble in their early days they've got one one idea on one course that they want to create but the online training as a concept is much larger right it's a bigger concept than one course but if you can start with one powerful element that you can test and see if you get a business win out of that then generally you'll find that that's a repeatable process you can take other pieces of information inside your business that aren't being delivered and start to create courses around that and all of a sudden you've got online training in your business very quickly and so i think you need to start with as you said you know think think big but start small yeah i think i can relate to kind of that in our business how like implementing online training can be a real distraction or you can feel like it's going to be a real distraction because you think about all the things you have to do i have to do like 20 policies or whatever else but i think what we've found in our business in everything we're doing now is that we are just like biting things off on little chunks just starting small and by starting small it just means that we can get there in the end yeah and i think you know to put this in a real scenario like if a manager has 450 staff and they want to impart one you know one piece of information is going to really make a difference in their customers lives right which is this how to choose the right time to be funny or not in a conversation right how are they going to you know bring 450 people in a room in today's world not possible right how they're going to have an individual conversation with all those 450 staff not possible so you know you've got one person at the center of this knowledge they know that this can have a big impact in the business but they need online training to make that scalable right and so i think that could be the trigger right there and was in this scenario where the customer said i know i want to get this out there's no other way for me to do this that really is structured has been thought about does deliver and lastly gives me analytics to know that my 450 you know customer success agents now understand when to put the emoji up in the chat and when not to for example right and the business impact on that might be a customer having a further conversation buying that product or a customer disappearing because you know they're the ceo of a company and emojis aren't funny to them for example or you know they're they're a young millennial just starting out looking for their first product and emojis are really cool right so i think you know if you think about that process right from the buying process the trigger to why it's needed thinking you know really small to start with and then the impact that that has in the business it's not one course with 450 people doing it the impact is a better conversation for our customers through online training yeah i feel sorry for whoever's working under that ceo doesn't like emojis we love emotions right we love emojis here at co-assembly yeah so i think if we were to sum this up i think there's a lot of triggers you know the question today was you know how do you know when the right time is well to be honest as you've said there's really no wrong time you can start really small you can start with something that's um quite key otherwise step in step into the process and i think what the process can look long term can be rather daunting when you first start but if you just take one chunk of it and think okay i'm gonna make training that kind of sucked today better that's one way i'm actually going to start training for the first time or essentially i'm going to build the foundations for a training mechanism in my business and i'm going to do it in the way on day one it's scalable and it's successful and i know that if i ever wanted to have 2 000 people and i wanted to have lots of courses i've still got the capability to do that even if i've only got 20 today well do this been really fun hopefully insightful to our listeners and um you know i think yeah what was your takeaway today i i was most enjoyed the last part of the conversation that kind of resonated with me it's just about thinking small and and starting small otherwise you will i feel like a lot of people can get overwhelmed with thinking about converting all their traditional learning into some kind of um uh giant resource library i think starts more and you'll get there and so i think we can provide some extra information we've got some socials down down below that you can click to find out more details on online training and and thinking about starting online training in your business you

2021-02-13 07:08

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