How to save on corporate training without sacrificing quality

Contents:

• Why businesses overpay for training
• How much does duplicate content cost businesses?
• What does this mean?

Corporate training represents a significant financial investment for organizations, so companies are looking for ways to optimize costs. One of the effective methods suggested by specialists from the international EdTech company Filtered in their corporate blog is a thorough analysis and revision of the existing content library. Filtered offers a data-driven service that helps identify key skills required by employees and identify training content that will advance their development. The remaining content is filtered, allowing you to focus on the most relevant materials. Judging by the fact that clients such as Heineken, AstraZeneca, and Danone use Filtered, it can be argued that content analytics is truly in demand and can significantly help optimize corporate training, especially in companies with extensive libraries of training materials.

Filtered specialists Toby Harris and Chris Littlewood shared their experience based on working with approximately 20 large companies, each with approximately 10,000 employees. They assure that even small organizations can face similar challenges related to the accumulation of training content. Conducting a training materials audit can also be useful for them to optimize training processes and improve resource efficiency.

This text can inspire you to create your own EdTech platform. In today's world, educational technology is becoming increasingly relevant, and developing an effective solution in this area can bring significant benefits. Consider how your idea can improve the learning process and make it more accessible to a wider audience. Research user needs to create a product that meets the current demands of the educational market.

Why Businesses Overpay for Training

Filtered analyzes the training content provided by its clients to identify duplicate content from different vendors. This analysis is based on an assessment of the skill set and format of materials, such as course catalogs and text libraries.

Similar content is material that is similar in both form and content. For example, a rented video course and a book from a corporate library on the same topic, such as leadership, are not considered the same. However, if there are 15 longreads on the same topic or skill from one vendor and 5 longreads from another, this indicates that the content for these five assets is similar, i.e., there is significant overlap. It is important to monitor the uniqueness of content to increase its value and effectiveness in search engines. Unique content helps improve SEO rankings and attract a target audience.

We investigated content overlap using key sources typical of the corporate environment. This includes extensive course libraries, access to massive open online course platforms, and catalogs of e-book summaries. This approach allows us to assess the diversity and accessibility of educational materials for company employees and identify the most popular topics and training formats.

The study found that the overlap rate for courses is 31%, while for e-book libraries, it is 28%. When analyzing content in various formats, the Filtered platform identified at least 20% duplicate content. The study's authors emphasize that this figure is typical for corporate training in general. This means that virtually every company with training content has approximately 20% redundant, duplicate material. Consequently, organizations are overpaying for content that does not add value. Optimizing training content and eliminating duplicates can significantly reduce costs and improve training effectiveness.

This figure may exceed these values ​​if an organization has more than three content libraries, external content, and internally developed training materials. Additionally, access to online resources can also contribute to this figure.

How much does duplicate content cost a business?

According to Statista's data on the cost of employee training in 2021 and information from the Talent Development Association for 2016, the average cost of employee training and development is £1,018 per person per year, which is equivalent to approximately 90,000 rubles at the current exchange rate. In large corporations, this amount can reach twice that amount. This data highlights the importance of investing in employee training to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of companies in the market.

According to calculations, the total amount of expenses of companies with 10 thousand employees on duplicate training content, which makes up about 20% of the total training costs, reaches approximately £3.7 billion per year. It's also important to consider the salaries of those responsible for purchasing and maintaining learning content, such as learning and development (L&D) specialists, as their primary responsibility is to deliver the necessary content and experience to employees. Research by Filtered found that content management takes up 42% of L&D specialists' time. Taking this into account, the total cost of learning and content management rises to £9.1 billion per year. Data presented for large corporations as a whole shows that each individual company should focus 41.8% of its spending on employee training. This share is made up of various costs associated with educational programs and employee skills development. Investing in employee training not only improves their skills but also contributes to improving the overall productivity and competitiveness of the company.

• training content;
• training delivery (in person or virtually);
• content delivery technologies (i.e., development and maintenance of the LMS platform);
• salaries of L&D specialists and consultant fees.

What does this mean?

Analyzing training content is an important step for any organization, regardless of its size. If you already have a significant amount of training materials, you need to conduct a thorough assessment. This will help avoid a number of risks, such as:

• Acquiring nearly identical content from multiple sources (incurring unnecessary acquisition costs);
• Doubling the work of L&D specialists on content curation and maintenance per learning asset;
• Creating a poor user experience for your employees because they have a hard time finding what they need in a disorganized content base, and when there are several similar courses, it is difficult to choose the "right" one.

Configuring content filtering based on the skills that need to be developed can be an effective solution. This approach will allow users to receive only the information that is relevant to their current level and learning goals. This not only optimizes the learning process but also promotes deeper understanding of the necessary topics and tasks. Proper content filtering will ensure high-quality material and increase user engagement in the training.

Studying various topics and obtaining relevant information is an important part of knowledge development. We encourage you to check out our articles, which will help you deepen your understanding and broaden your horizons. If you are looking for quality content and useful information, our materials will be an excellent resource for you.

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