"Sometimes you come up with an idea that requires creative and technical wizardry to provide an internal client with exceptional value. Then, after the initial excitement has worn off, the scale and difficulty of the task becomes apparent. 
E-LEARNING: TO BUY OR BUILD?
Your Dilemma
How your employees respond to e-learning will vary depending upon their age, the subject matter and their role within your organisation. For example, younger staff who need to improve their interpersonal skills will be more responsive if the content is media rich and with engaging scenarios; in contrast, a time-pressed manager who needs to become compliant in anti-money laundering will find a text-based approach delivered to his desktop perfectly adequate.
Whether you should buy a generic course or have one built specifically to suit your needs will depend primarily on the subject matter and the strategic goals you have in place. If you are looking to improve basic office skills, then there are a lot of generic courses that are suitable. But if you are selling something very specialised, the success of which is fundamental to the growth of your company, then an investment in a bespoke solution is appropriate. Whether you buy or build your e-learning, you will inevitably need to become something of an expert and be aware of the pros and cons of both approaches. In most instances, you will start off with the purchase of generic courses and then, as your confidence grows, produce bespoke material.
To Buy
When you buy generic e-learning courses, there are a number of questions to ask yourself — here are 10:
- Are you going to buy from one supplier who can provide a variety of courses, or from a specialist provider?
- Do you need a record of user results on each course?
- Do scores and records need to link to an HR database if you have one?
- Do you require certificates of completion?
- Do you want to deliver the courses via your supplier’s delivery system or would you like your own?
- How important is it to have your corporate branding on the courses?
- Does the course omit some essential knowledge for your employees?
- Do you want to purchase a single annual user licence for each course or are you looking for an annual corporate licence?
- How long has the supplier been in business?
- What are their credentials?
These are important questions to ask, otherwise you run the risk of trying to solve short-term needs without any of the long-term benefits. You also run the risk of making a long-term commitment to a supplier without necessarily having determined the real value of any of the additional systems and services on offer.
To Build
If you decide to build your own e-learning content, you must decide whether to do it in-house yourself or to outsource to a specialist company. Any decision to build rather than buy will be driven by the fact that you require something that is very specific to your needs.
To produce a course in-house will mean investing in authoring tool software; while this approach may save you some money, you need to consider the following five questions before you begin:
- Do you have the right in-house skills and competencies to design, build and implement your own courseware?
- Is building e-learning content the best use of your employees’ time?
- Are you prepared to ensure your chosen employees are properly trained?
- Are you prepared to ditch the first two courses they produce, given that it will not be until the third is underway that the team is starting to get the hang of it?
- Are you looking at this option because you believe it will address your short-term needs quickly and cheaply?
How you answer will determine whether you go ahead or commission a bespoke course. If you decide on the bespoke approach, you should create a short list of three potential suppliers in order to evaluate them in relation to:
- The sort of courseware they produce and their ability to deliver effective and engaging content on time and within budget
- The production background and expertise of key members of the production team and their ability to listen
- Their approach to instructional design and the production systems and processes they use
- Their technical know-how
- Their policy on revisions and upgrades, so that future changes are not going to cost you a fortune.
Bespoke e-learning is the only way to go if you are looking for a high impact solution to enable you to meet important business goals that it would be impossible to create in-house. If your needs are less strategic and you have the time and resources, then an in-house approach can deliver impressive results.
Whichever approach you decide to take, don’t forget to treat e-learning as an integrated part of your internal training and communications. Remember also to measure how your employees respond to what you publish. Only then will you know if your investment is delivering the desired results.
If you would like to discuss in more detail the ways in which e-learning could add value to your communications and HR strategy, then please contact me directly for more information.
Joe Pélissier