It's ok to ask for help

Fast growing internal L&D teams need to be smart about asking for help

Many organisations have fast tracked their investment into digital learning, hiring internal teams to help manage technology systems, libraries of content and in some cases, create new learning content.

These teams are extremely busy, supporting teams across a range of new skills to help adapt to a disrupted world. This means creating and curating content to help people back to work, onboard new hires, upskill and reskill workers and ensure everyone completes their compliance training. ?

The problem

The majority of these inhouse teams are struggling to keep up with demand from the business. But with organisations looking to create a healthy balance sheet after the Covid years, and under pressure from rising costs, there is a reluctance to invest further. With little time and budget much of the output has become quick, basic and often recycled from content libraries.

Learners who are asked to take courses that are repetitive, information and text heavy will struggle. There is substantial evidence that this is not an effective way for most people to learn and most of the information will be forgotten even in the short term.

How do people actually learn?

The majority of people will respond better by being presented new information in a visually engaging format, within a storytelling format that allows an ‘access point’ through personal relevance. This emotional engagement creates a connection that means people care, and in turn allows people to internalise the information, and more likely adopt the desired new skills and behaviours. An experienced, expert agency partner like Fenturi, creates courses using these principles and by partnering with us you can showcase the potential for learning to your business.

Internal teams are not ‘free’

Internal teams have and always will look to external agencies for support. In the immediate term, some businesses are looking for a ‘return’ from their internal investments which they have mistakenly equated to no longer needing to invest in external support. This concept of internal teams producing learning courses for ‘free’ is seductive and of course absurd if you factor in all the costs associated with running headcount. What’s worse, is that an internal team isolated from external providers, will start to repeat their own house style, reducing their capacity for fresh thinking and innovation.

Use external support

We know that there is a skills gap across many sectors, including learning, so work with agencies to help fulfil some of your learning objectives, whether that’s briefing them to create entire new courses or asking for support in a discreet design capacity.

Agencies don’t work for free either, but maybe we can help. If you are experiencing the challenges described above and have hit a brick wall then book a 30 minute call and we would be happy to share our advice.

For example, we could consult on suitable metrics that help track your team’s capacity helping you manage inbound requests. We can share pointers on how to construct a business case to secure more investment and how to construct good pitch document to brief a new project. We can then provide our own services or advise on other options you could take to extend your support network. You can check our availability and book a meeting straight into our diary here.

One last thought

If you want external agency support but you are on a journey educating your senior stakeholders, then we have a proposal. Fenturi have created six learning courses designed to showcase our creative and learning expertise. We can make these courses available for select partners with the option to customise the content if required. We have priced them very keenly because we believe they showcase the potential for both digital learning and Fenturi as a future partner. Get in touch if you'd like to discuss further.