I am in the process of setting up a training team and would like some advice on how many trainers are required for a company of this size (Approx 300 staff). I have worked in a company of 500 people who had 15 trainers and a company of 10,000 who had 6 trainers. Is there a standard way of working out a happy medium somewhere in the middle of this?
Mark Noviss
8 Responses
TNA?
I would have thought that before you set up a training team you would conduct an effective training needs analysis – which should give you a good idea of who needs what, what the priority for each area is and how long it will take.
That would then give you a good idea of how many trainers you need and a business case to support the requirements…
How many trainers
Hi Mark
Can’t give you any answers but here are some questions which might help you decide
1. What type of role will the trainers have – eg design, delivery, 1-1 coaching, consultancy – the more hands-on training required, the more people you will need
2. What type of training is going to be undertaken by the staff and how can it be delivered – are there different solutions available
3. Will you be using external providers or is everything being handled by the internal trainers
Sorry to be so vague, but the answers to the questions may give you the answers you are looking for!
Good luck!
Ratio
Hi There
I work for a company with similar no’s (300)so have a clue of what your looking at.
Actually it depends on ur org structure and the expectations from the trainers.
We have 2 sections which is Induction & leadership training.. overall 2 trainers with each responsible for a main section plus acts acts as a back up to the other..
However from a resource point of view 1 more trainer can do wonders as a surbordinate to the induction trainer.
Wy I say this is cas this surbodinate can be less experienced than the Indcution trainer and the Leadership trainer more exp than the Induction. And as ppl grow in their roles a career prospect is also there for them and recruiting at a lower level is always cost effective for the org.
Hope this helps.
Quick answer
From 8 years corporate training experience, I have found 1-2 trainers per 100 employees is fairly common.
How long is a piece of string?
I agree with Sue who asks a number of very pertinent questions that you need to consider.
In addition:
Are you just delivering training or are you providing performance consulting as well?
Who will do the administration of the training, the trainers or an administrator?
What is the likely demand for the training?
Will you need to run several sessions in parallel?
As with any resource management issue, understand the various roles that will be performed and estimate the amount of time that each will take. That will give a good idea about the number of people and skills required to manage the work.
Good luck.
trg team structure
Another approach – ask CEO/CFO/HR how much they budget for trg per employee. Then do the maths,
Ronnie
PS A FTSE 100 company will typically budget for about 2% of employee costs.
Just a thought
Hi Mark,
Just a thought. Do your TNA – great.
But then you still need the money. Take a look at your major competitors and how many trainers they have / spend per employee / trainers per 100.
Basically, anything which management can relate to, aspire to and will convince them of the need to spend.
Find something which shows you are behind competitors and therefore strengthens your business case.
You might find the answers in the Training Managers Yearbook. Or just phone them up!
Carl Duncker
http://www.traininaday.co.uk
Number of trainers
Mark
As you will have gathered there is no easy formula (I totally disagree with Kon’s suggested 1-2 per 100).
The process at arriving at what is needed is fairly straightforward in principle though is less easy in practice.
1. First start with the business need – as others have said, do a TNA
2. Then, based on the learning requirements, determine your strategy as to how those needs should be met
3. Factor in all options of self managed learning, elearning, coaching, educational study, internally provided training and externally sourced provision
4. Then work out how many people this needs for the internal training delivery – which may mean doing some design work first – and how many people are needed to support other things. If you can get a trainer that can deliver a sufficient range of what is required, then internal provision may be viable and cost effective. In a small organisation you may need to buy in specialist expertise for the less mainstream issues.
5. The final step is to re-evaluate the situation – you may find that 2.3 trainers would be ideal; but whether you go for 2 or 2.5 or whatever is more of a judgement call depending on how likely you feel that other unplanned things will come up in year. You should also re-evaluate the budget – maybe you cannot buy in as much as you would like.
Do all this and you may come close to the ‘right’ answer, if there is one.
Best of luck
Graham