I work in a call centre & our induction lasts 2 weeks classroom + 1 week on the telephones. During a trainees initial 12 weeks we have them back in training for a total of 5 days. How do I calculate the cost? is it simply multiplying the staff hourly rate by the no of training hours? plus trainers salary. Overheads such as heating, lighting etc do not need to be included.
Also how do I work out when they actually become productive?
I know this may seem a simple question but any help would be greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks
Lisa Young
4 Responses
More definition required
As a call centre trainer I am often asked to do this.
Firstly you need to decide how complex you wish it to be; Simple or Complex costing. Other factors to consider are where does training start and end? Begin at the recruitment stage? End at the first appraisal? Leaving the company? Do you factor in team managers/analysts and their time whilst overseeing the fist week on the phones?
What is the cost of NOT training?
You asked about costing inductions specifically, its necessary to separate out H&S, introduction to company, legislation etc its more normal to cost skills and knowledge.
Secondly you ask at what point do they become productive? Trainers dont usually measure productivity thats the analysts and accountants realm. Trainers prefer to ask “At what point are the learning objectives (skills/knowledge) being implemented sucessfully and to what extent?”. Define your learning objectives (ensuring they are measurable – SMART is frequently used), train them and then measure to what extent they are beng implemented.
If they are all being implemented 100% as soon as the CSP’s leave the training room then that may be where you stop measuring however its better practice to see what is still being implemented in 3 months time.
Lastly dont forget all this has to be in line with the job description as its best practice to measure skills/knowledge that are defined or trained in line with the job description.
Feel free to contact me if you require extra help, I’m in London.
markthetrainer@hotmail.com
Good luck.
Calculating cost
Hi Lisa,
A great person to talk about this area would be Kim Coe. She was instrumental in developing the very first call centres in the UK. First Direct, One-2-One etc.
She was on the team that designed the whole structure from Concept through to market, and would have the know-how on this very topic.
You can contact her on 0870 2424 223.
Or try contacting her P.A. cindy@askhow2.com
Hope this helps.
Costing training
I have a costing matrix on an Excel spread sheet you’re welcome to have a copy of. It’s based on ‘Making Training Pay’ from IIP/CIPD. Although it hasn’t been vetted by an accountant and there’s no guarantee with it, it seems to work OK.
good book to help you
Hello Lisa,
A really good book that might be of use to you is ‘Evaluating the ROI of learning’ by Paul Kearns.
One of the key things to factor in is how effective the learning has been – e.g. how easy is it for someone to remember what they’ve learnt and to apply it, how often do they require re-training – if at all, how motivated are they to apply their learning.
Another thing to count into the equation is what else would they be doing if they weren’t in the classroom. So what’s the cost of them being out of the business for 5 days.
I can give you some details about retention of learning and the Paul Kearns book is great on working out what to measure, when, and how – and quite often he says that it’s not worth measuring or calculating because if the person doesn’t get the training then the business won’t work – e.g. airline pilots learning to fly safely.
Regards,
Stella Collins