Maximizing Year-End Enterprise Training Budget for Optimal Employee and Business Benefit

Regardless of the industry, organizations need to make the most of the annual/quarterly budget, especially at the end of the year when there may be some extra in the coffers! This is the golden amount which may yield tremendous employee and business benefits if used correctly. The Use-It-or-Lose-It phenomenon is a major driver of organizational growth towards employee training, and usually has a very important growth-oriented impetus behind it. The end of the fiscal and calendar years signals accelerated spending, which may or may not be efficient, and effective in terms of business benefit and employee training, going into the next year.

For companies, especially those primarily B2B, there is a pronounced increase in material-related spending, with training-related spending taking a backseat. In other cases, we see companies spending on the wrong training modules and subscriptions, which lead to them losing money and not getting much benefit.

End of Year Budget and Marketing Statistics

According to the numbers:

• On average, companies spend around 5 times as much towards the end of the year, versus the annual and/or weekly expenditure.
• General, as well as marketing-related purchases, are not scrutinized as much by the top brass when made towards the end of the year. This is due to the aforementioned use-it-or-lose-it opinion.
• Martech and ad tech vendors encourage higher spending during the end of the fiscal year.

In particular, when it comes to training employees on software and platform-related concepts; for the most part, companies fall prey to the appeal of spending higher while not availing the benefits provided by software companies. However, recently, it has been seen that a spending spree at the end of the year may not be the best option, and that smarter planning with respect to training is the better approach.

So, how can companies maximize the effectiveness of the remainder of the yearly/quarterly budget while still providing the best in training to your employees? Simple! Through intelligent planning! Following are some training intelligence tips that companies can use to get more for their spent buck towards the end of Q4.

Utilize CLCs, SATVs, NTUs and Similar Learning Credits

A massive number of companies all over the globe are using technologies and software from Cisco, Microsoft and NetApp, among others. All of these software and systems giants offer learning credits along with their products, which can be redeemed in terms of training credits, which can be used to train individual employees or teams on how to optimally use the product. Cisco offers Cisco Learning Credits (CLCs), Microsoft offers Software Assurance Training Vouchers (SATVs) and NetApp offers NetApp Training Units (NTUs), which enterprises can utilize to optimize their employees on the hardware, software and systems.

Instead of spending on employee training, mostly when going into the new year; companies can use the available credits to train employees. This can be done in a systematic manner, especially if companies are doing continuous business with the three aforementioned companies, or others that offer similar learning credits.

Purchasing Year-long Training Subscriptions

Master training subscriptions that last a full year, from the date of subscription, can be an advantageous investment for companies looking to train employees in the long term. And, purchasing such a subscription at the end of the year, to round off the total spending can be a very good financial decision, since it will tap into the current year’s remaining budget, but run well into the next year, negating the need for purchasing a brand new subscription at the start of the year.

The Master Subscription and Master Plus Subscription at QuickStart are great example of such a training subscription, offering year-long IT training, and containing hundreds of courses which the company can benefit from. Moreover, the end of the subscription is likely to fall into the very end of the year, which would make it conceptually brilliant as well.

If your company can ride out the temptation to ‘use it or lose it’, and instead make intelligent investments, not only will it result in the remaining budget going towards enterprise benefit, but the employees getting trained to combat the challenges of the future as well.