Employers rarely articulate specific training needs; more often, they express a need for vague skills like critical thinking and communication. When they are specific, company leaders might articulate the same key business program in vastly different ways: a technology officer might advocate for increased IT investment, while an HR officer would shift focus to deficiencies in corporate culture. Misidentified employer problems lead to poor program design and low employee engagement, decreasing the likelihood of repeat engagements.
Adult and professional education custom and contract training proposals are typically constructed after a university’s initial interaction with an individual corporate executive. This reactive approach is problematic for two reasons:
This resource is part of the Identify High-Potential Employer Partners and Plan Your Pitch Roadmap. Access the Roadmap for stepwise guidance with additional tools and research.
1. Role-based bias and organizational silos typically prevent the HR representative in charge of liaising with the university from accurately describing the training need
2. Waiting until after the first in-person interaction has occurred to create a proposal does not leave time for a COE unit to create a nuanced proposal, resulting in stalled approval processes
By proactively offering assessment services, universities can demonstrate tailored customer insight in the negotiation process and design a proposal that appeals to multiple influencers within the organization. University of California, Irvine’s standardized needs-assessment helps the primary purchaser navigate internal silos while also gathering information pertinent to program design. B2B sales representatives should use this tool early in the sales cycle, typically in their initial conversations with HR executives.
A pre-pitch assessment can identify employer needs. Use a pre-determined list of questions and ask an HR representative about specific learning objectives, key influencers and sponsors, and audience for the training.
Assessment questions
- What is the name of your company?
- What is the purchaser’s contact information (i.e., name title, email, phone number, any other purchasers)?
- How did you hear about working with our unit (e.g., internet search, professional association, internet ad, word-of-mouth, print ad)?
- If you heard of our unit via word-of-mouth, from whom?
- What are the specific reasons for this training request?
- Who is requesting this training (e.g., the target audience, senior leadership, a given department, human resources, training and development, management)?
- Who is sponsoring/paying for this training or partnership (e.g., the target audience, senior leadership, a given department, human resources)?
- What are the specific goals/learning objectives and outcomes of this training?
- Is the request motivated by deficient performance? If so, what is the issue, and how is it affecting your business?
- Are any new processes, workflows, or employee expectations being put in place?
- Are there existing best practices or company processes that we should embed in training or course programming?
- Who is the audience for this training or partnership?
- What are their job titles? What departments do they work in?
- What are the primary responsibilities of the audience?
- What is the anticipated number of employees needing training or development?
- What experience profile do these employees possess (i.e., years of professional experience, education level)?
- What is the general attitude of the audience toward the training?
- Have there been previous attempts to provide training or development for this audience in this competency area? Was it well received? Was it effective? Were there any lessons learned?
- Is this training or program mandatory? How will that impact attendance? Are there any incentives or consequences attached to attendance?
- What is the ideal time frame for delivering training or enrolling in programming?
- Is there a deadline for completion? Any other causes for urgency in program launch or completion?
- What is the preferred delivery method for training (e.g., face-to-face, face-to-face on-site at employer, online synchronous, online asynchronous, blended)?
- Do you need assistance with promoting this training or program to your employees?
- If marketing assistance is needed, what channels do you think would be most effective with your employees (e.g., email, on-site information sessions, flyers and physical collateral, webinar)?
- Would your employees benefit from/enjoy occasional updates on our institution’s program offerings for career development?
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