SELECTING YOUR DEVELOPMENT PARTNER

January 26, 2015

Sometimes you’re in the market for a special training project —- a training initiative that is unique to your organization. For example, you might well be tasked with addressing items that are specific to your organization’s procedures, policies or operating equipment.

What should you look for in a potential partnering vendor?

To begin, you should select a producing organization that has a long track record of developing similar training projects for their customers. And you should require that prospective vendor to provide you with examples of those custom projects, similar to what you are requesting.

Don’t skip this step. You will be well rewarded for undertaking the analysis.

Secondly, you are looking for a vendor that specializes in adult education – an organization that realizes what it takes to motivate and train adults in their own simulated environment.

Above all, a vendor that realizes that training rooted in full video and audio is ultra important to 40% of the American workforce who do not assimilate anything written above a 4th grade reading level. (Never forget that your target trainees grew up in a learning-culture world of smartphones, tablets, computers and television.)

If that vendor does not show you examples that include video, animations, and/or simulations (plus, optional word-for-word audio), discard them as a possible partner.

Thirdly, you’re looking for a vendor that is fully capable of understanding your training needs and how best to meet them. In short, a producer that knows when to call in subject matter experts for specific expertise in a particular area —- a vendor that knows how to gather all necessary information while presenting it clearly and logically for the learners.

At the same time, your vendor-of-choice must convince you that they understand the importance of remediation, allowing the learning to be successfully completed by all your trainees. That vendor should also convince you that their proposed training solution will be a just-in-time resource, to be used efficiently whenever and wherever — after the initial instruction has taken place.

If you pick the right partnering vendor you will maximize your chances of filling your specialized training needs successfully.