It's cheap, efficient, and, unfortunately, steep- ed in controversy. But whatever your personal feelings about it, outsourcing is a reality you'll probably soon be dealing with in your training department—if you aren't already. To make sure you handle it right, we picked the brain of Debbie Friedman, author of "De-mystifying Outsourcing: The Trainer's Guide to Working With Vendors and Consultants."
When to do it? "When you want to expand the capability of your department, or what you're trying to do," says Friedman of when to outsource training functions. "Also, when you need additional expertise, or sometimes you're outsourcing just when you need additional resources to meet your objectives."
Sometimes you outsource training functions when you have a politically sensitive job, for example, that's better to have somebody from outside the organization handle.
When you don't outsource? If you're launching a new product, and need training to support the accompanying marketing campaign, hiring an outsider is risky," says Friedman. To give them a greater chance of succeeding, fully brief them on your organizational dynamics, and the industry-specific language or jargon used by your learners. To make sure such confusion isn't an issue, it's a good idea to select an outsource partner with experience training inside your field.
And, of course, your potential outsource partners have to be able to do specifically what you need them to. If it's a change initiative, Friedman says to ask yourself, "Do they really understand the dynamics of change, and will they be able to partner with us to be successful?"
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