Training Without a Budget
Alice Tutunjian
New learning provides for an exciting work culture. When we acquire new knowledge, we can become more productive, learn to apply new processes, increase our confidence and gain competitive advantage as individuals and companies.
Sadly, when a company’s financial outlook becomes grim or the economy tanks, one of the first places that corporations cut budgets is in training. Such a scenario doesn’t have to be dismal, though. There are many ways that leaders can continue to provide training, without having to spend an excessive amount of money.
Following are some ideas for training without a budget:
Select employee “experts” to provide training
If you want your team to improve its organization and time management skills, ask a power user of Outlook (or whatever organizational tool your company uses) to provide a training session for the rest of the team. Caution: Be sure to review the presentation and materials first to ensure it aligns with your learning objectives and that the expert is a good trainer.
Ask an expert in your network to provide a presentation
Is there someone in your professional or personal network that can be a guest speaker at your firm? For example, do you know of a Financial Analyst or Stock Broker who can deliver a presentation on market evaluations, budgeting?
Ask a customer to be a guest speaker
Do you have a favorite customer who is also very engaging? Ask her to provide a talk on subjects that you think are relevant to your staff such as industry trends, customer expectations, and professional development.
Utilize on-line webinars
Often industry associations/organizations provide free on-line webinars and training. Have one or two of your employees participate and then ask them to share what they learned with the rest of the team.
Encourage employees to use MOOCs
Massive Open Online Courses not only provide free courses but also interactive forums. Some of these courses are taught by professors at leading universities such as MIT, Harvard, and UC Berkeley. Course options are plenty, including data science, writing and grammar, business and management, supply chain and logistics, computer science, and programming.
Start volunteer business book clubs
Start a book club within your organization and ask others to join. Decide which books/topics would be most suitable and then decide if everyone should read the same book and hold a monthly discussion (at lunch, before or after work), or have each person read a different book and provide a synopsis to the rest of the team.
Apply for grants or funding
Work with your HR Department to find ways that the company can apply for grants. There are many federal and state funded programs for free training and retraining. Do the research; it’s worth the time.
Links to Good Reads on Training without a Budget
8 Tips for Training your Small Business Employees on a Budget
Contributing writer Caron Beesley shares 8 ways in which companies can train small-business employees without a budget. One of her suggestions is brown-bag lunch days: “Ask employees to come prepared to talk about a topic. You’d be surprised how little the different teams know about what the others do and how it benefits everyone. A sales rep might present an overview on the sales process, and how important each business function and individual is to ensuring a happy customer. An employee who is exploring a new way of doing business can also share it over lunch.” … read more
5 Ways to Develop Employees without Spending a Dime
Author Halelly Azulay shares her view on how to engage in employee development without investing any money. She declares, “There are skills and competencies that they need (or want) to develop, but you don’t have the budget to send them off to some three-day training seminar. Or maybe that’s not even an option for the content or experience you’re looking to develop. Or you’ve been there, done that. What to do?! Relax! There are actually lots of things you could do, right now, to develop your employees. And many of them won’t cost you a dime.” … read more
Why You Don't Need To Spend A Dime On Training New Hires
If your concern is training new hires without a budget, Avi Singer, founder of a social learning platform, contends, “When it comes to welcoming new employees for example, other new hires or junior employees can be huge assets on day one if they know where to find the right resources.” … read more