In today’s fast-paced business environment, organizations that prioritize learning and development (L&D) have a significant competitive edge. A strong L&D team is critical to an organization’s success, as it helps identify skill gaps, creates effective training programs and delivers meaningful learning experiences. However, effectively staffing your learning function when expectations and needs can shift substantially from one day to the next is challenging. Supplementing staffing with a proven partner can offer an advantage.
Brandon Hall Group™ research (2023 Learning and Development Benchmarking) reveals that 30% of learning budgets are designated for purchasing external services. That same research shows that much of that expenditure is pointed toward content, strategy and operations as well as training instruction. We also know that nearly 5% of organizations that outsource learning functions actually outsource the entire function. As a Brandon Hall Group™ Smartchoice® Preferred Provider, AllenComm is highly effective at helping companies with staff outsourcing.
The Role of L&D Staffing in Maximizing Learning Effectiveness
A well-staffed L&D team is the foundation of organizational success, helping to identify critical skill gaps, design and implement effective training programs and deliver engaging learning experiences that drive employee growth and organizational transformation.
The impact of a proficient L&D team extends far beyond the realm of individual employee development. By fostering a culture of continuous learning and upskilling, organizations empower their workforce to adapt swiftly to evolving industry trends, embrace technological advancements and contribute more effectively to the achievement of strategic objectives. A well-staffed L&D team ensures that employees possess the necessary knowledge, skills and competencies to excel in their roles, ultimately propelling the organization toward sustained success and industry leadership.
L&D teams must remain agile in responding to the organization’s needs. They can be proactive partners with each department, quickly responding to their training needs and tailoring learning solutions to meet their specific objectives. This agility allows the L&D team to provide timely and relevant support, ensuring that employees receive the training they need, when they need it.
Sometimes, learning needs can stack up, with deliverables outpacing the capacity of the internal team. Often, despite the best planning discipline, urgent learning needs land in the CLO’s inbox. When that happens, having options to supplement staffing is critical. AllenComm Talent offers a solution that can be as flexible as your needs. They even have a 5-minute talent needs assessment to get you started.
Staffing Strategies to Meet Your Needs
To meet your organization’s unique learning and development needs, consider these strategies when staffing your L&D team:
Consider a Hybrid Staffing Model
A hybrid staffing model, not to be confused with a hybrid work schedule, blends a mix of internal and external resources to ensure adequate capacity to deliver expected work. Proactively identifying the roles that you may need to supplement with additional talent — before you need it — is a good place to start. That way you can match solutions to those needs when the time comes. That will simplify the process and accelerate the timeline for getting additional help online and ready to deliver.
Prioritize Roles and Skills
Identify and prioritize the roles and skills that are essential to achieving your learning and development objectives. This may include roles such as instructional designers, learning technologists, content developers and training managers. Assess the current skills and competencies within your team and identify any gaps that need to be filled.
Build a Diverse Team
Strive for a diverse team with a mix of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. This diversity can enhance creativity, problem-solving and the ability to cater to a wide range of learning needs. Diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity, age and expertise can bring a wealth of ideas and approaches. Supplemental staff can help with this critical goal as well.
Leverage Technology and Automation
Employ technology and automation tools to streamline administrative tasks and enrich learning experiences. This will liberate your team’s time for strategic initiatives and the delivery of top-notch learning programs. Learning management systems (LMS), eLearning platforms and automation tools can simplify tasks such as content management, learner tracking and reporting. Outsourcing this type of learning operations work can help maximize the internal team’s efforts.
Encourage Continuous Learning and Development
Invest in the ongoing learning and development of your L&D team. Provide opportunities for team members to update their skills, stay current with industry trends and explore new methodologies. Encourage a culture of continuous learning and professional growth to ensure that your team remains adaptable and effective in meeting the evolving needs of the organization.
Use Cases for Staffing Augmentation
The strategic use of external resources to deliver effective learning programs allows organizations to scale their training capabilities and tap into subject matter experts without the need to hire full-time employees. Additionally, staffing augmentation enables organizations to address fluctuating training demands, enabling them to quickly ramp up or scale down their training efforts as needed. By accessing specialized expertise through staffing augmentation, organizations can bring in professionals with niche knowledge and skills to deliver specialized training programs.
Staffing augmentation also can alleviate the pressure on internal teams, freeing them to concentrate on strategic goals and core functions. By outsourcing select tasks and roles, organizations can streamline their resource allocation and enhance overall operational efficiency. This approach can also yield cost savings, as organizations pay solely for the services they require, when they require them, thus optimizing learning and development budgets.
Some of the situations that might require an L&D team to engage temporary talent include:
- Meeting a time-sensitive demand for training delivery due to a system implementation, product launch or regulatory deadline.
- Developing content that requires specialized skills such as VR/AR, immersive digital learning, interactive video content, etc. These modalities can require expensive equipment and time to deliver so the value of bringing in external skilled talent can shave weeks or months from delivery timelines.
- Outsourcing learning operations support to assist in maintaining learning technology can keep the internal team focused on their highest priorities.
Staffing augmentation offers organizations a nimble and cost-effective strategy to bolster their learning and development capabilities. AllenComm Talent allows for everything from temporary staffing to outsourcing of learning functions and permanent placement for direct hiring.
Given AllenComm’s deep expertise across a variety of industries, they are well positioned to be an effective partner. They will work with you to understand your goals and priorities and recommend a solution that fits your company and your needs. Their approach empowers the delivery of impactful training programs, the management of fluctuating demands, the access to specialized expertise and the optimization of learning and development budgets.
Check out this video to learn more and visit allencomm.com to start your journey.
