by tradesmeninsights | Jun 18, 2014 | Marketing Tips
Following is a guest post from Maggie Cook, Ecommerce Analyst at Lorman Education Services.
Businesses are constantly working to stay ahead of the latest trends, techniques, law changes, regulations and developments. In a world where technology is continuously evolving, there are more and more options for business professionals to stay up-to-date in this ever-changing environment. But as a business professional, do you take advantage of these opportunities? Do you find value in continuing education? Regardless of industry, seeking out some sort of further learning can prove crucial to not only your own professional development, but to your overall organization’s success.
For the majority of industries, continuing education becomes a necessity to staying up-to-date and informed on the latest techniques, trends and technologies affecting their respective fields. Additional training can also offer up the benefits of increased productivity, reducing your liabilities for errors or omissions with updated knowledge of laws and regulations, increasing morale and job satisfaction, as well as reducing employee turnover.
A number of professions simply require continuing education in order to maintain licenses or certifications. Some of these professions include engineers, architects, attorneys, paralegals, controllers, accountants, contractors, presidents, vice presidents and beyond. For some of these professions, especially those within the legal, medical and construction industries, continuing education and development is a necessity.
What Questions Should I Ask When Selecting a Company for Training?
Once you’ve realized the benefits of continuing education for your particular profession, industry and organization, what should you be looking for in a training program? Some points you may want to consider include: what continuing education credits or certifications are offered, are there programs in multiple learning formats, do they include reference materials or manuals with their programs, who are the speakers and what level of expertise do they hold.
How Can I Convince My Company Training is Necessary?
Getting buy-in from your superiors and others in your organization may be another step in the continuing education process for you and/or your organization. Review what value your training will serve the company, how will it benefit you in your specific position, how can this additional training protect the company from liability and lawsuits and finally, would a group training or company training be possible.
Lorman Education Services endorses the pursuit of lifelong learning, and seeks to serve a wide array of business professionals and industries by providing a variety of continuing education programs for credit and overall professional development.
Helpful Links:
- Why Continued Education and Training is Crucial for You and Your Organization’s Success
- Upcoming Live Webinars in Construction & Development
- OnDemand Webinars in Construction & Development (Available 24/7)
by tradesmeninsights | Jun 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
Having a trained workforce is a major challenge in several of the industries that we work with. I wanted to share some highlights from a blog post by the NAED president (National Association of Electrical Distributors) answering the question: Why is training important?
Tom Naber, president of NAED, writes about training as:
- An opportunity to expand your employee’s knowledge base.
- An investment that provides benefits to both your company and your employee.
- An ongoing activity, not a one-time event.
Many associations, like NAED, provide resources that make having a well-trained workforce attainable and are usually the best place to start your process of training your staff.
To read Tom Naber’s post, “Why Is Training Important?” visit the NAED blog.
by tradesmeninsights | May 9, 2013 | Uncategorized
Each month we’ll be featuring a blog post from our friends at MAGNET (Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network). MAGNET’s mission is to support, educate and champion manufacturing in Ohio with the goal of transforming the region’s economy into a powerful, global player. You can visit MAGNET online at manufacturingsuccess.org.
This post originally appeared on MAGNET’s Manufacturing Success blog and is reposted with permission.
Addressing the Skills Gap and Improving the Bottom Line
The skills gap in the manufacturing workforce continues to be a challenge. Employers constantly bemoan their inability to get qualified workers, educators convene employers to better understand what they are looking for and develop new programs, and job seekers experience frustration when they are not selected due to lack of skills. It is time to start looking more closely at potential solutions, the role that employers can play, and the value to employers.
Recently reports of successful strategies are starting to emerge. The lessons learned from these successes should be explored for replication and duplication. How do you define and measure success in a way that resonates with all the stakeholders? Typically, successful placement in vacant positions is one clear measure. Another is assessing the Economic Impact of the placement on the company and measures that affect its bottom line.
One example of a project that did both, is a training program managed by MAGNET in 2011. The project was designed to determine if the attainment of skill certifications matched to employer requirements would result in a pool of candidates to fill current or projected vacancies in entry–level positions. Four Ohio sites were selected. The local team was headed by an educational provider and partnered with the local One-Stop that assisted with recruitment of participants. Selected employers were involved from the beginning. They committed to providing input in the content and delivery of the program, as well as hiring completers to fill vacancies. Employer involvement included: plant tours, classroom presentations, delivering some of the training, and conducting mock interviews. Program outcomes included attainment of a National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) and the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) Certified Production Technician credential.
Participating employers expressed their satisfaction with the project and the majority of completers were placed followed training. Follow up was conducted with the employers to gather not only their perception of the project, but also the Economic Impact on key factors affecting their bottom line. Preliminary data provided by six of the companies, indicated over $2M in retained sales, $ 250,000 in increased sales, and over $ 6M in investment in plant or equipment as a result of hiring skilled workers. Additionally, ten jobs were created. Factors included: reduced OJT (On-the-Job-Training) time, improved retention, and increased production due to more quickly promoting incumbent workers as their positions were filled with the new hires.
Although a small project and a small employer feedback sample, this model holds promise as a way to help companies quantify the value of this approach. If employers are able to clearly identify the required skills, and if the training providers can match those with certifications that validate the skills, job seekers can more successfully be prepared, placed and retained. Employers have to be part of the solution and training providers have to be willing to adapt their delivery content and strategies to meet both employer and job seeker needs.
Measuring the economic impact on the company provides a quantifiable way for employers to determine the ROI of their time and effort at the beginning of the job preparation process.
Click here to read the original post.
by Sonnhalter | Mar 19, 2012 | News, Press Release
Sonnhalter Releases Podcast About the Importance of Online Training
BEREA, Ohio – March 2012 – Sonnhalter, a communications firm marketing to the professional tradesman in the construction, industrial and MRO markets, released the podcast, “The Importance of Online Training.”
The podcast is an interview with Lisa Bordeaux from BlueVolt, an online learning management system that enables companies to train, track, and reward learning; about how manufacturers and distributors use online training and the different learning methods that it offers.
“This podcast offers valuable insights about online training,” said John Sonnhalter, rainmaker journeyman at Sonnhalter. “Everyone is looking for return on investments and Lisa shares how training can offer valuable returns.”
“Training, in our customers’ experience, is one of the most significant things you can do for the bottom line,” said Bordeaux. “And when we look at the data and the impact on sales, we’re consistently hearing companies tell us that they’re seeing anywhere between a 17 and 31 percent incremental increase in sales.”
The podcast is available here. [sonnhalter.com/tradesman-insights/podcasts/]
About Sonnhalter
Established in 1976, Sonnhalter is the leading B2T marketing communications firm to companies that target professional tradesmen in construction, industrial and MRO markets. Sonnhalter’s brand identity highlights its expertise in marketing to the professional tradesmen. Its tagline, “Not Afraid To Get Our Hands Dirty,” promotes the employees’ willingness to roll up their sleeves and dig deep into clients’ businesses, also, it refers to the market it targets: the tradesmen who work with – and dirty – their hands every day. Sonnhalter developed the acronym “B2T,” which stands for “business-to-tradesmen” to capture the essence of its specialty. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, Sonnhalter was named one of BtoB Magazine’s Top Agencies. For more information, visit the company website at www.Sonnhalter.com or visit the company blog at www.TradesmenInsights.com.
About BlueVolt (www.BlueVolt.com)
Portland, Oregon-based BlueVolt connects and advances participants in industries through its leading online Learning + Marketing Platform, its comprehensive, quality learning catalog, and its talented professional services team. Platform participants include manufacturers, associations, distributors, contractors, and skilled professionals in the electrical, plumbing, flooring, welding, and HVAC industries. The Platform enables online training and learning experiences including social/collaborative, blended, on-demand and live multi-camera webcast with enterprise-level functionality and performance. BlueVolt’s unique approach to training encourages learning with its proven reward program that is valuable to both content consumers and content sponsors. As of May 2010, BlueVolt delivered over 675,890 courses to over 86,000 registered users.
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 13, 2011 | Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
I caught up with Lisa Bordeaux from BlueVolt recently to talk about the importance of using online training. Everyone is looking for ROI.
BlueVolt provides online training centers for manufacturers, distributors, buying groups and trade associations. They have delivered more than 1 million courses to date. They have been a strategic partner of ours for over 5 years and have helped several of our clients in this area.
Lisa explains the differences of why Manufacturers and Distributors use it and why their reasons are different. She also talks about the different ways to learn – Observations, Conferences, Classroom and Self-Study.
Here are a few highlights:
Training – It’s not on fire (easy to push out) – but in our customers’ experience – it’s one of the most significant things you can do for the bottom line. We have customers telling us certified people are outpacing their industry averages by 16-24% YOY. Not sure what other efforts have that impact.
Training – get it as close to the guy as possible – usually folks have 10 minutes in the afternoon to learn something – our buying group customers – say their member employees spent the ten minutes surfing a supplier site for product information – but by bringing it all in one place and putting the incentives on it, like we do – they spend the 10 minutes becoming better sellers – and that’s time well spent.
Enjoy. Listen here.
