Issue 89 – Publicly offered training or onsite training, which one is better?
ISO 9001:2015…
Publicly offered training or onsite training, which one is better?
I appreciate receiving emails with questions and/or comments from readers of this Newsletter… please continue to do so since it provides me with direction on where to aim the content of these publications. In my last Newsletter (ISO 9001:2015 Newsletter Issue 88) we discussed the topic of “If you’re an Auditor, what is the best question you can ask?”, and now in this Newsletter we will discuss “Publicly offered training or onsite training, which one is better?“.
The ISO 9001:2015 Element numbering…
Element 4 – Context of the organization
Element 5 – Leadership
Element 6 – Planning
Element 7 – Support
Element 8 – Operation
Element 9 – Performance evaluation
Element 10 – Improvement
Publicly offered training or onsite training, which one is better?… First of all, let me say that I have delivered training sessions in both of these modes, and even though I no longer provide publicly offered training sessions, I will attempt to answer this question with minimal bias. The reason I am addressing this question at all is because I often get asked by my Newsletter Readers if I have any recommendations on where to go for certain types of training.
Let’s start with publicly offered training courses… PROS: It can be very cost effective if it’s for only one (1) person on a very generic/standard topic (vs a very specific topic requiring a lot of customization to the industry that the person comes from). In addition, to cost effectiveness for one person, it also exposes that person to other people who are their peers but from other industries, which helps to provide comparisons to what others are doing in this field and possibly to obtain some best practices…. basically it’s a form of networking. Finally, it also provides the person with an opportunity to get out of the office for a few days and maybe even allows them to travel to a geographical area they’ve always wanted to see. CONS: I can remember reading the feedback sheets from training participants and the comment I most often saw was their disappointment that their situation, within their company, was not specifically addressed. Since almost all publicly offered training has to be generic enough so as to attract participants from as many industries as possible (since it is all about butts-in-seats metrics), the biggest drawback of publicly offered training courses is that they are too vanilla to immediately apply the training upon return to the office. This means the participant will need to first figure out exactly what they “learned”, and then think about how it can be applied in their real-life situation. This is usually a daunting task that ends up never getting done because the student ends up frustrated not knowing how to apply all of those great ideas they learned in class. In summary, the publicly offered training event provides very little payback for the company and basically ends up as a “personal development” activity for the employee.
Now let’s discuss onsite training courses… CONS: It can be very costly to run a training class onsite if you only have one or two people (unless its on a very specific topic requiring a lot of customization for the company role that the person(s) are working in). I would like to mention that when you do the cost calculation to compare, make sure that all travel costs are included and not just the cost of the course itself. Another CON is that there will be no sharing of experiences with other participants from other industries so any bench-marking will need to be accomplished through the Instructor (which can easily be done). Finally, the participants don’t ever get to leave to go to another location so they lose out on the travel benefits (although these onsite sessions can be conducted in a local hotel conference room to provide a little physical separation from the office interruptions). PROS: If you can find the right Instructor, the quality of learning rises exponentially since the Instructor can use actual, everyday examples from your company to teach the concepts. Hands-on workshops can also be organized to actually get a jump-start on transferring this new knowledge into the company very quickly and effectively. Also, keep in mind that with three (3) or more participants, the cost differential between these two training approaches usually starts to become minimal. As a final comment, regardless of which training approach you decide on, make sure to do some research on who the Instructor will be, because that is the biggest factor in whether you’ll get your money’s worth!
Be sure to watch for our next Newsletter issue where I will be answering some of the questions that I get from Readers of my Newsletters about how to implement the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 in a specific and practical way, that will also help improve business performance…
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Need Help?
ISO 9001:2015 Internal Audit Outsourcing (we can do it for you OR with you!)
For cost effectiveness, the Internal Audit function can be outsourced to an external experienced auditor on a periodic basis. This will provide an independent and objective assessment to management, of where process issues may exist, along with identifying opportunities for improvement. It will also provide the evidence needed to satisfy the Internal Audit requirements in the ISO Standards. We have used two different approaches with this service: a) We conduct the entire audit ourselves, or b) We act as the lead auditor, and along with your Team of internal auditors, we complete the entire audit together. This latter approach allows your people to receive guidance and direction from an experienced lead auditor while at the same time maintaining significant involvement in the internal audit process.
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Internal Process Auditor Training for ISO 9001:2015
The two (2) day Internal Process Auditing for ISO 9001:2015 Training Session is focused on a process approach to auditing with the objective being not only to assess conformance of the quality management system, but also to uncover process improvements during an audit. This goes hand in hand with the process auditing requirements found within ISO 19011 and the process approach covered in ISO 9001:2015, which promotes continual process improvement throughout this Standard. An enhanced checklist is developed, and there will be workshops throughout, to reinforce learning, as well as a live, practice audit. If you are looking to meet the ISO 9001:2015 internal audit requirements and to “raise the bar” for your internal audit program then this is the course you should consider.
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Until next time…
Tim Renaud
Helping Business Professionals Reduce Risk and Remove Waste!