4 Responses

1. Don’t employ trainers!
   Here’s a radical answer: zero. More and more firms have outsourced training delivery, and instead use a network of suppliers, business schools and freelancers.

2. How many subjects?
   Hi

   I have to concur with Dick, (but there again I would). Looking at the issue from another viewpoint, how many subjects do you need to train in? H&S, Management, Coaching, Sales. If you want the best for your people; that could suggest 4 trainers to start with regardless of the size of the organisation.

   And from another tack, coming from an IT standpoint, it used to be reconed that you needed a full time techie (to cover just the user problems, nothing to do with hardware failures) for every 100 users.

   Regards

   Peter
   AKA Ed.
   Editor of TrainerBase
   http://www.trainerbase.co.uk

3. Trainer ratios
   Lisa
   There is no easy answer to this one. A few years ago some people worked to ratios but these days it is strategy led.
   In other words, you need to work out what you are aiming to achieve, then what courses and other development interventions are needed, then how you will source them in line with your budget, and, finally, how many ‘trainers’ you need to procure/design/deliver/coordinate the whole.
   Having none at all is possible, but most have at least one (outsourcing induction, performance management or core business training isn’t always a wise option). If there are a small range of needs but with the potential for high volume it may be best to have a greater internal resource. If there are a wide diversity of needs and low volumes, highly specialist topics, or training that can be bought in cheaply, then using external training provers may be more viable.
   As with most things in T&D, the answer is: it depends!
   Graham

4. Automation
   Lisa,

   We are doing some ongoing benchmarking research on exactly this subject, and in the past couple of days alone I have seen examples ranging from about 1:300 to 1:3000.

   I get the impression that Graham’s comment about the degree to which you are prepared to oursource is very important, but equally important is another question:
   “How much scope is there for process automation?”

   By this I do not mean some scary 6-month LMS roll-out, there can be some very simple fixes, especially in the area of training admin, that can drastically reduce the required headcount.