Each industry has a unique set of challenges when it comes to training its employees, but in speaking with Operations & Maintenance (O&M) leaders at numerous organizations, we’ve discovered one challenge common to all: the cost and inconvenience of travel associated with training.
Some of these costs include:
Transporting Trainees – The current average price of cross-country airfare is $388.32 per person, according to the DOT. And that’s not including rental cars or taxis and meals.
Transporting Instructors or Subject Matter Experts (SME) – On top of what you’re paying for their expertise, travel costs apply to instructors and SMEs too. And since they can’t train anywhere else while traveling, you’ll probably have to pay their standard fee on travel days as well.
Transporting Designated Training Equipment – If you’re not transporting trainees offsite to train on specialized equipment, you’re likely transporting the equipment itself to your other locations. And beyond THAT expense, you’re losing out on revenue that equipment could be earning elsewhere.
Production Downtime – Now factor in loss of worker productivity before and after the trip, and multiply by number of trainees… That’s a lot to spend before a single moment of training has happened.
So why are organizations doing it? Because they had to.
But they don’t anymore. Well, not the same amount of live training.
The new world order: better training wherever YOU are.
“The market has been experiencing a shift, with everything available on demand — and training is really no different from any other product knowledge you’d want, and need, right away. It’s time to distribute Applications instead of Plane tickets!”
– Director of Training and Publications at Komatsu America Corp, and Heartwood Customer
3D Interactive Training offers more effective training, anywhere, anytime – allowing you to reduce (not eliminate) your organisation’s expensive live training and dollars spent on travel. It also accommodates the on-demand training “shift” that Komatsu mentions, while offering the chance to flip the script on traditional training methods for the better.
Consider the traditional approach to training – whether in-house, or offsite: Trainees begin with e-learning or classroom courses that involve mostly SEEING and not much DOING, and then move on to live sessions and costly hands-on training.
And while touching the equipment and turning knobs, wrenches, and buttons is CRITICAL, it is often not done at the right stage of training. Trainees arriving at live sessions are usually seeing/interacting with equipment for the first time. They don’t know what they don’t know, and run the risk of harming the equipment or themselves because they don’t know what they’re doing.
Now imagine offering trainees access to equipment prior to live training – letting them see and interact with it virtually. When they attend the live session they are already familiar with the equipment and procedures. They know what questions they want to ask and can have more productive time with the instructor. Doesn’t that sound more efficient?
Check out the video below to see a 3D Interactive Training module in action:
As the video shows, trainees are learning by doing right from the start – and it’s as easy as downloading an app to an iPad. Training happens immediately – not after a 6-hour flight, or 2-hour class, but on demand – just as Komatsu said.
Lifelong training at your disposal
Training that’s available on demand is important – because it’s impossible to retain everything we learn over time. Refresher training is needed, not just to practice crucial tasks performed infrequently (like emergency procedures), but because learning never ends.
By offering instruction via scalable, portable modules – on demand – Heartwood’s 3D Interactive Training applications mean saying goodbye (or less hellos) to costly plane tickets and hotel rooms, and enjoying the freedom to train more people as you want, when you want, where you want. Safely and efficiently.
Reach out now if you have wanted to reduce your training travel costs.