Chief Learning Officer- September 2008

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Training Outsourcing on the Decline BY CUSHING ANDERSON Chief Learning Ofﬁcer magazine’s Business Intelligence Board survey results illustrate that the number of companies using training outsourcing has declined, but those that outsource are happy with the results. t is commonly recognized that companies need of the term by the marketplace. The results suggest effective training programs to transfer knowl- that enterprises use the term “training outsourcing edge and skills to employees, customers and provider” synonymously with the use of external partners; to retain employees; and to improve training providers. For the purpose of this article, we speed to proﬁciency. Training programs can be will adopt this broader usage of training outsourcing grown organically over time, developed in-house, for our analysis. outsourced to a training provider or implemented using some combination of in-house and external Declining Use of Training Outsourcing During the past several years, two-thirds (66 perexpertise. The decision to outsource rests mainly on whether the needed volume and quality of training cent) of enterprises outsourced some of their training can be supported by the internal staff. functions. In 2007, this number dipped to 64 perEvery other month, IDC surveys Chief Learning cent, and as seen in Figure 1, this percentage went Ofﬁcer magazine’s Business Intelligence Board (BIB) down again to 56 percent for 2008. The unpredicton a variety of topics to measure able economy may be a factor, as the attitudes, issues and interests internal training resources are beDATA POINT of senior training executives. This ing pushed to a higher utilization For 2009, 85 percent month’s topic is training outsourcto curtail costs and spending on of companies expect ing, and 393 BIB members particiexternal providers is reduced. This spending on training pated in the survey. is an interesting change in the suroutsourcing to increase More than 56 percent of the envey responses, as many of the other or remain the same. terprises surveyed use outside probehaviors in training outsourcing viders to fulﬁll some aspect of their have remained remarkably consistraining functions, primarily outsourcing content tent during the past three years. development, training delivery and LMS. Overall, Most companies outsource only select portions those enterprises that outsource training are satisﬁed of their training functions — only about 2 percent with the services they receive and plan to increase or outsource the entire training function. This percentmaintain current spending levels for 2009. age has remained relatively steady, even though the number of enterprises outsourcing some or all of Deﬁning Training Outsourcing their training function has declined. IDC deﬁnes training outsourcing as the ongoing transfer of the management and execution of one Spend on Training Outsourcing Spending on outsourcing as a percent of overall or more complete training processes to an external training budgets reveals a bell curve skewed toward services provider. However, it is clear from the survey results during the left. The majority of companies spend less than the past several years that this is not the current use 40 percent of their training budget on training out- I 62 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • September 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer- September 2008

Chief Learning Officer Editor’s Letter Contents Connections Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Lifestyle Learning: Improve the Bottom Line With Behavioral Education Tracom’s Social Style Model CLO Profile IOL: Determining the Impact of Learning Communicating With the Boss About Impact Mission Accomplished? Measuring Success of Corporate Universities Borrowing Measurement Practices From Investors Value Creation With Human Capital Investment Business Impact Analysis at Chrysler Learning or Performance Enhancement: Which Is It? Best Practices in Global Project Management Training Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

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