Managing the mix
As enterprises like Hancock begin to target this wide range of new skills, they'll need to offer a mix of courses, some run by outside vendors and some internally developed and focused on proprietary systems and internal business processes.
To bring all that together, many companies are appointing managers dedicated to overseeing IT training programs. And, in many cases, those managers are turning to outside training vendors that can bring together a wide range of courses in one online catalog and, often, help enterprises cut the cost of procuring online or classroom training.
At Hancock, for example, IT Training Manager Donna Cleary, who oversees training for the company's 1,000 IT workers, recently signed the company up as a beta user of Smart2 Partner.com, a training e-marketplace. Smart2Partner, set to launch officially this month, works on the group-buying model to help users find the right courses among offerings from 50 IT training vendors. Smart2Partner then resells the courses at reduced rates. Smart2Partner officials say its training rates are up to 20 percent below typical rates.
Cleary said Hancock's trial of Smart2Partner is starting to pay off. She wouldn't give exact return-on-investment figures but said John Hancock Financial Services is "definitely saving money" on its $1 million yearly training budget since signing on with the e-marketplace. (Overall, Hancock plans to increase IT training spending by 10 percent this year over last.)
Besides providing lower-cost training, the e-marketplace has helped customise courses for Hancock and made it easier for IT workers at Hancock to sign up for training using Smart2Partner's online course catalog. That, Cleary said, means more IT workers are taking advantage of the offerings.
Smart2Partner isn't the only e-market place for IT courses. Another is E-Learn IT's IQDestination, an online clearinghouse for classroom-based and online IT training classes that also offers volume-based discounts for technology training courses.
But employers must do more than just be willing to pay for training and make it available online through an e-marketplace. For enterprises to get the most out of their training spending and to keep IT pros happy, they've also got to help already-overworked professionals find the time to fit training into their schedules, experts say. The best way to do that, according to IT training managers, is to build time for training right into project planning.
"There are time pressures, and sometimes people have to jump out of classes because there's a project that just won't wait," said Gerry Hudson-Martin, vice president of training and enthusiastic learning at hotel chain Marriott International. E-learningâ€"self-service classes delivered onlineâ€"can also help, Hudson-Martin said, since employees can train right at their desks in between other tasks. Now Marriott delivers fewer than 10 percent of its IT courses online, but the percentage is expected to increase this year, he said.
Hudson-Martin, who's in charge of training for 1,300 of the company's 1,400 IT workers based at the Bethesda facility, said the primary goals of Marriott's training program are building project management skills, providing new tools training and vendor-focused certifications, and building a methodology for designing the company's e-business infrastructure.
Like Hancock, Marriott is increasing spending on IT training this year. And, Hudson-Martin said, the payoff has been clear. While he would not release a specific figure for the hotel chain's IT worker turnover, he said it falls below the average for U.S. companies. "The training does improve retention," he said.
And, for many enterprises, the benefits of retaining IT workers go well beyond avoiding the need to recruit in a tight IT skills market, something that can be very expensive.
At Hancock, for example, after 10 years of organised IT training and application of a policy that mandates all IT workers take at least eight days of training per year, the company may soon be able to reduce its reliance on contract IT workers, said Steve Rosenblum, director of IT work force development. That, Rosenblum said, is because Hancock, by investing in training, has been able to hold on to the IT workers it has.
"Retention is a huge benefit of training programs because people stay where they feel wanted," Rosenblum said.
