Save by growing your own trainers: when companies can build a cadre of internal experts, they can reduce their dependency on outside consultants and, ultimately, lower their training costs

Workforce, Sept, 2002 by Michael Welber

After implementing SAP software, Solutia discovered that when the consultants who had installed the system left, they took their expertise with them. As a result, users weren't getting the full benefit of this complex ERP program. To diminish their future dependence on outside consultants, managers at Solutia decided to purchase a license from Oliver Wight that would enable the company to develop certified instructors, coaches, and assessors internally instead of depending on outside consultants.

"We felt we could leverage a one-shot expense with Oliver Wight and create their expertise in our own people," says Bob Howard, Solutia's director of supply chain optimization. "Those people then would provide the sustainability within the organization and within our financial means."

Oliver Wight board chairman Jim Correll says that the company sets a high bar for certification, since the people they train will become internal versions of their own consultants. The process for training trainers resembles Brattle Systems'. First, an Oliver Wight consultant conducts a class with the prospective instructors, arming them with materials such as PowerPoint programs with the notes included. Then, they review the information in greater detail, highlighting the key points and reviewing the instructor notes. Finally, each new instructor presents the material and is critiqued.

Slade says the critique can be pretty rough, but it's always constructive. "We try to help them learn to be good presenters, as well as being able to understand and teach our material."

The method for choosing instructors is another critical factor in the success of the program. "We not only looked at their functional background, but also tried to choose people who were recognized by others within the company as being established experts with professional credibility," Howard says.

Achieving certification represented an attractive perk for company managers at Solutia. They saw it as an opportunity to develop professionally and appreciated the prestige of gaining it.

Training master trainers

Another approach to maximizing training dollars involves creating complete internal expertise. Tenet Healthcare Corporation, a nationwide provider of health-care services, owns or operates 116 acute-care hospitals and related businesses, and employs about 113,000 people in 17 states. The Santa Barbara, California-based company engaged Development Dimensions International to provide supervisory and leadership training to improve employee retention.

"The number-one reason people leave an organization is dissatisfaction with their supervisor," says Jim Concelman, DDI's manager of leadership development. "Tenet recognized that they didn't have consistent quality frontline, first-level, and second-level leadership for people in the organization. We worked with them to put together a curriculum tailored to their particular needs. They are now in the process of training 10,000 supervisors."

Tenet says that the cost of using an outside vendor to provide such training to each of its facilities was prohibitive. The company opted to have DDI not only instruct trainers but also certify master facilitators who could pass along their skills. Tenet's vice president of learning services, Norma Resneder, describes this as a waterfall approach, with training trickling down throughout the organization. "We actually trained four or five master facilitators who could train within," she says.