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Heartland Community College Customized Training
Report prepared for: Jennifer Feaman, Associate Director, Customized Training at Heartland Community College
Marketing 232- Marketing Research Dr. Hoarce Melton
April 28, 2014
Prepared by:Emily Burke
Eric Hogankamp Alex Leventis
Caitlin O’Connor
Illinois State University
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Letter of Transmittal
Marketing ResearchCollege of Business
Illinois State University470 S University St.
Normal, Illinois 61761April 24, 2014Jennifer FeamanCustomized TrainingHeartland Community CollegeNormal, IL, 61761Dear Ms. Feaman,
We have completed the marketing research analysis for Heartland Community College Customized training. The results are enclosed in a detailed and organized fashion in the report titled “Heartland Community Customized Training Marketing Research Report”. The report is based upon a survey of 93 local businesses in and around the areas of Bloomington/Normal, Peoria, and Lincoln.
We have taken the knowledge and methods learned in our marketing research class and applied to our report. The results of this report will provide the information necessary to answer the research objectives we established for this project. These results reveal the perceptions, needs, wants, attitudes, location, and industry of potential clients in regards to customized training. We believe these results will be beneficial to you and assist you in your decision making process when it comes to generating new clients.
If for any reason you should need further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us. We are more than willing to provide assistance to you in this project, and look forward to seeing your future decisions.
Best Regards, Emily BurkeEric HogenkampAlex LeventisCaitlin O’Connor
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary 4
Introduction 5Background
Background of Customized Training 8Training and Development Programs offered by Educational Institutions 8Trends in Specialized Training 9Bloomington/Normal, Lincoln and Pontiac 10Prior Customized Training Research 10Survey 11
Method 13
ResultsObjective #1: What is the best way to reach Customized Training’s 16
clients and determine what they need? Objective #2: Are area businesses providing professional 16
development and training for their employees?
Objective #3: Who is providing professional development 17 and training for their employees?
Objective #4: What types of training are businesses receiving or need? 17Objective #5: How much do businesses budget for training and development? 18Objective #6: How are businesses learning about training 18
and development opportunities?Objective #7: Do area businesses know about Customized Training? 19
And if so, how did they hear about Customized Training? Objective #8: Have businesses used Customized Training before? 19
Objective #9: Are there any barriers in the way preventing businesses 20 from providing training and development to their employees? Objective #10: What are business's preferred methods of training? 20 Objective #11: What are the basic demographics of the businesses? 20
DiscussionSummarization of Findings 22Strengths and Limitations 26
Conclusions 28References 30 Graphs 31 Surveys 33
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Executive Summary
The objective of our research was to help Customized Training get a better understanding
of the market they serve and to better understand and respond to the training and development
needs of businesses in Central Illinois. We sent out surveys to businesses surrounding McLean
County and also reached out to them via phone call to ask for their participation in completing
the survey over the phone or with a link we would provide in an email. The questions answered
by the respondents helped identify a number of objectives such as: (1) Determining what the best
way to reach Customized Training’s clients and determine what they need, (2) Determining if
area businesses are providing professional development and training for their employees, (3)
Looking at who is providing the training for the business’s and if the businesses utilize internal
or external trainers and why, (4) Looking at what types of training businesses are currently
receiving or need, (5) Determining how much business’s budgets are for training and
development, (6) Determining how businesses are learning about training and development
opportunities, (7) Determining if area businesses know about Customized Training and if so,
identifying how they heard about Customized Training, (8) Understanding why or why not
businesses have or have not used Customized Training before, (9) Identifying any barriers that
are preventing businesses from providing training and development for their employees, (10)
Determining what business’s preferred methods of training are, and (11) Identifying the basic
demographics of the business’s.
The surveys sent to businesses were analyzed, and the findings are contained in the
following report. The report provides answers to help Customized Training get a better
understanding of the market they serve.
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Introduction
The purpose of this study was to develop a plan which would help Customized Training
to be more recognizable among businesses, which would, in turn, would create more business.
Customized Training provides training services to businesses in McLean county, part of
Livingston and Logan county, as well as students in the surrounding areas.
The problem at hand is that surrounding businesses are not aware of who Customized
Training is or what services they provide. Getting their name out to these surrounding businesses
is their major objective and this problem will be discussed in the following research objectives.
The first objective is to determine the best way to reach Customized Training’s clients
and determine what they need. Understanding this will give a better understanding of the target
market and identifying a way to contact businesses to help generate interest.
The second objective is discover whether or not area businesses are providing
professional development training for their employees. By determining how many and which
businesses provide training for their employees, Customized training can better magnify their
target market and customize their marketing towards the businesses in need of training.
The third objective is to determine if the training provided for the businesses are done
internally or externally. This will help them get a better understanding of which businesses will
want which types of training so they can advertise according to their needs.
The fourth objective is to look at what types of training businesses are receiving or are in
need of. This will help identify what types of trainings they should focus on and look for in
businesses.
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The fifth objective is to identify how much businesses budget for training and
development programs. Understanding how much businesses budget will help Customized
Training better understand their target audience and how much businesses are willing to spend
on their training.
The sixth objective is to identify how businesses are learning about training and
development opportunities. By determining how the businesses are learning about these
opportunities will help Customized Training better reach their target audience through these
specific forms of communication.
The seventh objective is to determine if area businesses know about Customized Training
and if so, how they heard about them. Knowing how many businesses are actually aware of their
business gives them a sense of how much more they need to focus on getting their name exposed
and finding and utilizing methods to get companies to recognize them.
The eighth objective is to determine if businesses have used Customized Training before.
This will provide valuable insight into why or why not businesses utilize Customized Training
services.
The ninth objective is to identify any barriers that may be preventing businesses from
providing training and development to their employees. Understanding this will help Customized
Training tailor their services in order to help eliminate the barriers these businesses may be
facing.
The tenth objective is to look at what methods of training businesses prefer. By
determining what methods of training are most preferred will help Customized Training focus
more on promoting and improving the method to generate interest.
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The eleventh and final objective is to determine the basic demographics of the businesses.
Understanding more about the target market characteristics will help Customized Training to
better suit their services to the markets interest.
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Background
Background of Customized Training
Customized Training is focused on providing employees with skill-based learning
experiences that will enhance the knowledge and skills that are essential to their company’s
success. Customized training is offered where, when, and how businesses want it, whether it be
at the company itself, or at one of the three locations (Bloomington/Normal, Pontiac, and
Lincoln) they have available for training sessions. Customized Training makes it their mission to
meet company’s continuous training and educating goals by bringing in local, regional, and
national training professionals to lead their training sessions. Their problem, as stated previously,
is getting the name of their company out to local schools and businesses, and with this
recognition they hope to eventually expand outside of McLean and other surrounding counties.
We believe they would benefit greatly by promoting themselves on social media platforms, such
as Facebook. It would create awareness to students and businesses. Companies across all kinds
of industries are using social media to not only inform their consumers about products and
services, but to answer questions, and better their customer service.
Training and Development Programs offered by Educational Institutions
Educational institutions such as business schools, engineering schools, and community
colleges have entered the market as well, creating more competition to the market. According to
Key Trends for 2012, personal learning is transforming the training industry. This stems from
search engines that allow people to take control of their learning experiences. Search engines
have become the main competition of training services like Customized Training besides for
companies providing the training themselves. This is a major concern to businesses like
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Customized Training, because if employers can find training services for particular skills on
common websites like YouTube, then there is no reason to go out and hire an outside business to
do your training. The barrier of entry for the training industry is low, which is why there are
many new entrants making their way into the training industry. With profits declining, and many
new entrants competing, smaller companies are struggling to survive.
Heartland Community College is not the only educational institution that provides
customized training programs for small-medium sized businesses and organizations. The Illinois
Small Business Development Center at Illinois State University was established to help
entrepreneurs start a new business, and expand or improve existing businesses. The Illinois
Small Business Development Center offers one-on-one confidential counseling for all phases of
business activities while also helping with their everyday challenges, problems and assessing
their competition to find solutions. Some of the services the Illinois Small Business Development
Center includes are: Confidential Business Consultation, Improved Marketing Strategies,
Analysis of Business Finances and Detailed Scorecard Analysis. Along with these services, the
Illinois Small Business Development Center also offers periodic targeted training programs
relevant to small business owners. Heartland Community College Customized Training needs to
look at other successful training services like this and learn from what they are doing
successfully and what they can improve on.
Trends in Specialized Training
Based on the 2013 Kelly Global Workforce Index, only 54% of employees are satisfied
with their employer’s current training. This is an opportunity for Customized Training which
needs to be taken advantage of. If employees are dissatisfied with their current training,
Customized Training needs to find a way to convince managers that this is not only true but a
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problem for their business. Also, 58% of employees prefer their additional skill learning to be
obtained through continued education and training. This information provides further evidence
that Customized Training should provide this information to managers of prospective companies
when reaching out to them. This kind of information could convince a manager that his or her
employees want and need further training and that the best place to get it is from Customized
Training.
Bloomington/Normal, Lincoln and Pontiac
Bloomington/Normal, Lincoln and Pontiac have businesses that require different
attention and marketing strategies. According to State and County Quickfacts, the total number
of firms in the McLean County area in 2007 was 12,693. All of these businesses fall into the
potential target market for Customized Training. It was determined that 72% of the businesses
surveyed for research came from the Bloomington/Normal area, which also has a larger
population than Lincoln and Pontiac; meaning the results are slightly swayed towards
respondents from this area.
Prior Customized Training Research
Prior to conducting our research to help Customized Training become a more
recognizable name to businesses, research had previously been done to help address this
problem. The survey and results were completed in 2013. Of the businesses surveyed, the 29.8%
of the businesses were in the Public Service industry, which was the most common of all the
surveyed respondents. Also, the majority of the individuals who responded to the survey held a
senior leader position with 42.9%, and 31.9% of the respondents held a divisional/departmental
leader position. Most of the respondents who held a senior leader position had a staff size of
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under 10 employees while most divisional/departmental leaders and frontline staff workers who
responded were from larger companies with over 101 employees.
Since Senior Leaders gave the most responses to the survey, we will first focus on the
findings of their responses. It was found that there was a high demand for leadership (65.6%),
social media (62.5%), marketing (53.17%), and customer service (50%) development trainings
that organizations felt that could benefit from. The developmental trainings that the businesses
found least beneficial were industry specific training and human resources, tied at 18.8%. Most
of these businesses go outside the firm to offer internal learning opportunities, which was useful
for Customized Training knowing that a majority of the respondents utilize outside sources to
train their employees. From the 2013 results, the most common aspects that hindered businesses
from providing their employees with professional development programs was found to be
budgetary problems (66.7%) and lack of time (60.0%).
Survey
The survey conducted by Customized Training could be improved in many ways. First,
84% of the businesses surveyed were in the industries that provided them with most of their
business. Although it is beneficial to keep learning about their current customers, their major
goal is expansion so they should have tried to reach out more to other industries to gather
information on how to better reach a wider array of businesses. Many of their clients in the past
were in financial, manufacturing, and IT sectors, but in their survey, a majority of the
respondents were in the Public Service industry. This provided an opportunity to gain and utilize
the information provided to enter into a new or less-targeted market.
Based on our research objectives, other questions can be added to the survey to focus on
the topic areas we are researching. Topic areas to be focused on would be what businesses they
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should target and how they should go about reaching them. The ways to reach clients varies
from small to large organizations. If Customized Training focuses on smaller businesses and
figures out the best way to reach them, then they can invest more time and money into marketing
with a small business focused strategy. Another question to be added to the survey is to identify
how businesses are learning about other training programs. This can stem back to the first
objective on how to reach clients. If they are learning about the development programs through
Facebook, then Customized Training will know they need to get more involved on Social Media.
The next question to be added is to determine if businesses know about Customized Training,
and if so, how? If they find that most businesses know them by Word of Mouth for example,
they can think of ways to get more people talking about the services they offer as opposed to
other ways which may not be catching consumer’s eyes.
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Method
Upon first hearing the problem at hand, we met as a group and applied personal
knowledge and experience to gain a better understanding of the issues facing Customized
Training. We discussed what Jennifer told us during class and began brainstorming objectives
that would be helpful for solving Customized Training’s problems. One of the main problems
facing Customized Training is its lack of recognition amongst businesses in the towns
surrounding McLean County. Our initial goal was to gain information from these businesses and
apply it to Customized Training’s problem of lack of recognition..
For the research process, we decided to first use surveys. We created a survey that
targeted local businesses with a series of questions. The finalized survey that was sent to
prospective businesses was created based on the best questions from each survey submitted in
class, which created a high quality survey to send to out to the target businesses. The finalized
survey consisted of twenty-two multiple choice and short answer questions. Respondents of the
survey provided us with information regarding the company’s view on training given to their
employees. Due to an initial low response rate, we were forced to cold call the provided
businesses in surrounding counties who did not respond initially, in order to generate more
completed surveys for our study. Through the use of these more personalized phone calls, we
were able to greatly increase our response rate, and we finished at ninety three surveys in the
end. With these surveys, business respondents were asked the following: what industry they are
involved in, the number of employees they have, their preferred method of training, who receives
the training, if they have any pain points, if they have a budget for training expenditures, and if
they currently use a training service. Through these and many other questions we were better
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able to understand what strategies Customized Training should develop in order to solve their
problem in gaining interest from businesses around the Bloomington Normal area.
In the process of surveying these businesses, we targeted both general and HR managers.
We chose to target them because they have access to the budget and will know what training is
needed and how effective it will be for their company. Customized Training supplied us with a
list to survey from and with that list we contacted the businesses by email and eventually by
phone. The list consisted of their clients and prospective clients. From here, an email was sent
out to the list of clients discussing what Customized Training is and about the possible
opportunity to win free training if they participated and gave an email address. The survey that
was attached in the emails proved not to be very effective from a response standpoint. Many
businesses did not respond, most likely on account of the lack of a substantial benefit from
participating, or that the emails were forwarded to their “spam” folders. This delayed our data
gathering significantly. Following this failed attempt, the class took it upon ourselves to gather
more information. The client list had just over 600 businesses to contact; and the businesses were
split between teams and then split between team members. We made cold calls to our section of
the client list to personally ask if managers would take ten minutes of their time to complete a
survey. Many of the managers preferred to have the surveys emailed, which created another
problem, because we did not know if they would actually fill out the surveys after agreeing to do
so over the phone. The managers that did participate in phone-interview surveys were helpful
and made the data collection process easier.
The next step for the phone interview surveys was to enter them into the online survey
format. This process was simple, and each respondent’s answers were personally entered by the
interviewer. This was efficient and preferred, because it ensured that the businesses were
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completing the surveys, without a possibility of them backing out. Whereas with the businesses
that said they would take the survey via email, it was unsure if they would actually take the
survey. In the end, 93 businesses filled out the survey that was created, short of our goal of 130,
but enough to gather valuable information.
Using the SPSS tool, the data collected through these 93 surveys was entered into the
system and made available to analyze and study. The online responses naturally were easier to
enter due to the ability to gather the information online and plug into the SPSS program. With
the SPSS tool, we would first run descriptive statistics and look at the frequencies of the
responses for each question. This showed which the most popular responses were and what
clients were in need of as far as training in their organizations. Next, we went through and
looked for significant, meaningful associations among the variables.
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Results
Research Objective #1: What is the best way to reach Customized Training’s clients and
determine what they need?
Through running a frequency analysis it was discovered that 71% of businesses listed
emails as a preferred way of contact, with mailers being the second most prefered with 25.8%.
It’s not surprising that emails are a favorable way of receiving information, they are quick, easy
to access, and can be personalized towards their target audience and often receive quick
responses from these potential consumers. Other options were newsletters, professional
publications, web searches, and referrals.
Research Objective #2: Are area businesses providing professional development and
training for their employees?
Unfortunately for Customized Training, 43% of the respondents said they have their own
internal department and are not in need of an outside service such as Customized Training to
help them with their training needs. A lot of businesses feel that it is not necessary to go outside
of their organization to fulfill the training that they think they can give their employees
themselves.
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Research objective #3: Who is providing professional development and training for their
employees?
Of the businesses surveyed, the ones who provided the most training and development for
their employees had a budget of $100-$2,500. This was found using the crosstabs analysis
feature on the SPSS system. 11 respondents in that budget range responded that they have their
own internal department. 4 respondents in that budget range said they bring in outside
professionals, and 2 said they go outside of the organization for all training. Most of the
businesses who provide professional development for their employee have under 10 employees.
Of the businesses in this range 10 of them responded they have their own internal department. 6
responded they bring in outside professionals, and 5 said they go outside the organization for all
of their training. Banking and financial services offer more training and development
opportunities for their employees than the other industries. Of the banking and financial services
who responded, 3 said that they have their own internal department, 5 said they bring in outside
professionals, and 1 of the respondents said they go outside of the organization.
Research objective #4: What types of training are businesses receiving or need?
Through our research, we found that 52.7% of businesses surveyed answered customer
service as the training they are currently in need of. Clearly the way employees are handling
customer interactions is a major concern and this is an opportunity for Customized Training to
make a move towards customer service focused classes. Management/supervisory training, sales
and marketing, and team building were all tied for second highest in demand with 44.1% of
businesses listing it as a type of training and development they could benefit from. Once again,
this shows the kinds of training that companies are wanting to help their employees to grow, and
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by responding to the needs of their potential customers Customized Training can create more
business.
Research objective #5: How much do businesses budget for training and development?
For this research objective, we ran a frequency analysis to determine how much
businesses are budgeting for training and development this year. Unfortunately for Customized
training it was determined that 32.3% of respondents answered that they did not have that
information available, with the second leading response of 21.5% saying their budget was
between $100 and $2,500. 19.4% of businesses responded saying they do not have any money
budgeted for training and development. Other responses for what businesses were budgeting for
training and development were $2,501-$5,000 (9.7%), $5,001-$7,500 (1.1%), $7,501-$10,000
(2.2%), and over $10,000 (11.8%). This should give Customized Training an idea of what area
businesses are budgeting for training and development programs.
Research objective #6: How are businesses learning about training and development
opportunities?
Learning how businesses are acquiring information on training and development
programs can assist Customized Training on how to expand the awareness of their company.
69.9% of respondents said they have learned about training and development programs through
emails. Emails are an easy and cost efficient way to contact prospective clients. One suggestion
when sending the emails to businesses is to exclude Heartland Community College in the subject
title. This may cause businesses to believe the email is not relevant to them, and send it to the
trash folder. Instead, the subject title could read “Training and Development Opportunity.”
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Research objective #7: Do area businesses know about Customized Training? And if so,
how did they hear about Customized Training?
80% of respondents answered no when asked if they were aware of Customized Training
prior to taking this survey. This should be a big indicator to Customized Training that they need
to advertise more. Trying to acquire more business means the company needs to be known. With
only a small percent of businesses actually knowing about them, Customized Training needs to
figure out how they want to go about making their company known to the market. If Customized
Training decides to invest in more advertising, it could reap large benefits.
Research objective #8: Have businesses used Customized Training before?
Only 7 businesses responded saying they have used Customized Training before. The
other businesses used a variety of other training companies, with number one being the McLean
County Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce offers similar training opportunities
for businesses and offers them at very affordable prices, usually around $50 per person. This
advantage they seem to have could have stemmed from a variety of reasons such as: the
company’s budget, the convenience of the training sessions, or the knowledge of the training
they provide. Knowing that McLean County Chamber of Commerce is the leading business in
training and development programs, Customized Training should learn more about what they
offer, how much they charge, and why customers are drawn to them. Learning more about
competitors is a key way to gain a competitive advantages in any business.
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Research objective #9: Are there any barriers in the way preventing businesses from
providing training and development to their employees?
The main barriers that business said kept them from giving their employees the proper
training that they needed were money and time at 36.6% each. Since most of the companies that
were surveyed were smaller, it would make sense that money would be a huge factor in cutting
back on training in order to cut expenses. With every business, time is also a major concern in
cutting down costs and being as efficient as possible. Interestingly enough, 35% also said that
they were receiving the training with no problems at all. These businesses were probably more
established or had less complex training procedures for their employees.
Research objective #10: What are business's preferred methods of training?
Naturally, the majority of businesses stated that their preferred method would be in
person, onsite. It is a much more comfortable atmosphere training in your own office or
workplace and it can be hard to find outside companies that really know what you are trying to
teach your employees. According to the survey, over 82% of businesses stated that in-person
onsite was one of their choices the list of preferred methods. The second most popular choice is
online, with 35.5% of businesses selecting it as one of their preferred methods. Going offsite was
not one of the popular choices and one can understand why. Traveling to a different place such
as Heartland takes a lot of time and is not nearly as convenient as just having your own employer
train you or doing the training online in the comfort of your own home or office.
Research objective #11: What are the basic demographics of the businesses?
Determining the basic demographics of the businesses was done by asking the industry
the businesses were in, the size of their organization, and the location, and then analyzing the
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frequency analysis among the results. We found that there was not much consistency with the
industry the respondents were in. The highest response was “other” at 28%, which consisted of a
wide variety of industries, and retail was second with 10.8%, followed by banking/financial
services at 9.7%. Manufacturing, public service (non-profit), government, agriculture, and health
and fitness were all tied at 7.5%. The majority of organizations were small with under 10
employees at 30.1%, followed by the size of 11-25 employees at 22.6%. There were also 18
businesses surveyed that answered they had over 101 employees. The majority of businesses
surveyed were located in McLean county at 72% followed by Logan county at 9.7%. The
demographics gathered from the research survey give insight to who they could be serving and
where they are from. Since they did not have a large clientele from the retail industry, there is an
opportunity for the company to expand their business and target the retail industry..
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Discussion
Summarization of Findings
After looking at the results gathered from the first research objective, we found that
emails were chosen as a primary way of contact at 70%. Emails are a quick and easy way to get
information about a business out to the public and they can be customized to better fit the
businesses they are trying to reach. Customized training should recognize this and begin
customizing their emails to particular business industries. Someone in the landscaping industry
and someone in the finance industry want to see different things when they open their emails,
and Customized Training needs to react to this accordingly. The next highest choice of contact
was mailers at 25.8%. It isn’t surprising that mailers are substantially less than emails because
mail is becoming almost old fashioned and not as convenient to view and respond to. With this
information, Customized training can tailor the way they reach out to consumers about their
business and better target prospective customers.
The second objective revealed that 43% of the businesses surveyed were happy with their
current internal training and had no interest in an outside service. One could guess that most of
these companies were either established in their training and knew exactly what they wanted
from their employees or had training programs that were simple enough to learn in a smaller
company setting. So with 57% of businesses using some alternative form of training, this leaves
Customized Training with an opportunity to reach out to these organizations and offer them on
the job training and development.
The findings of the third objective are important because they can provide us with
valuable information about the budgeting for training. Finding out which businesses are
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providing training and development can help Customized training better their ability to target
certain business based on their spending limits. We used a chi squared cross tabulation to
determine the different types of business who provide training and development. We found that
most businesses who provide training have a budget of $100-$2,500, 11 of them have their own
internal department and the 6 who answered differently could be potential clients. We also found
that most businesses who provide training and development have 10 or fewer employees, of
them 10 have their own internal department, leaving the other 11 in that category as potential
clients. Banking and financial services offer the most training out of all of the industries on the
survey. 3 of them said they have their own department, leaving 6 as potential clients. By
focusing on promoting to these subgroups, we can increase the chances of gaining new clients. A
suggestion for further research would be leave out the businesses who provide their own training
to further narrow the search for new clients.
The fourth objective, which was to determine what types of training businesses are
receiving or need, was determined by looking at the frequencies amongst the responses and from
there determining which variables held the highest response rates. From analyzing this, we
gained information that a majority of businesses are seeking training in customer service, at
52.7%. It was also determined that management/supervisory training, sales and marketing, and
team building tied for second as a type of training that businesses could benefit from at 44.1%. It
was also found that human resources was the least type of training that businesses believed they
could benefit from. Looking at the most prevalent responses for training and development that
businesses could benefit from could potentially be a great opportunity for Customized Training
to expand, develop, and promote more customer service, management/supervisory training, sales
and marketing, and team building focused classes and focusing less on human resources.
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For the fifth objective we found that most of the respondents who had access to the
information about their company’s budget answered that they spent between $100 and $2,500 in
training their employees. By researching and gathering information about company training
budgets, Customized Training can better target these businesses for specific training sessions.
Certain trainings might be too expensive for companies with smaller budgets, so Customized
training might want to offer them different services that better fit into their spending limits.
Findings for the sixth objective, provide information on how businesses are learning
about training and development opportunities. A majority of respondents said that they have
learned about these opportunities through email. Provided at the end of our report is a column
graph, that shows the preferred methods of gaining information on training opportunities. 69.9%
said they have learned about it through emails. Followed by professional publications in second,
and mailers in third. It is advised that Customized Training should take advantage of sending
emails out to businesses. Emails are an easy and great way to market to businesses and can be
customized accordingly.
After looking at results discovered for the seventh objective, it was determined that 80%
of businesses surveyed were unaware of Customized Training prior to taking the survey. In-
order to expand their client list, Customized Training needs to get into the consideration set of
businesses when they are determining who to work with for training and development programs.
In-order to be do this, they first need to create awareness amongst these businesses. It is advised
that Customized Training should market more towards the businesses in their target market area
through emails, mailers, and newsletters.
The findings for the eighth objective showed that only 7 of the 93 businesses surveyed,
had used Customized Training before. The other 86 businesses used other training and
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development businesses, with the leading business being McLean County Chamber of
Commerce. It is clear they have a competitive advantage that Customized Training lacks.
Customized Training should look into why customers prefer their training, and what they can do
to acquire some of the customers who are currently using other sources of training.To do this,
Customized Training could provide an incentive or a package deal to potential customers that
will make them consider using Customized Training over another training and development
program.
The ninth research objective was to determine what barriers are preventing businesses
from providing training and development to their employees. The results stated that lack of time
and budget were the main barriers. We found that 36.6% of businesses said that lack of time and
money were preventing them from providing their employees the training they need. With
respect to the issue of lacking time, it would be advised that Customized Trainings should focus
on promoting how online training is more convenient and could save the organization time in
their training process. With respect to lack of budget being a constraint, it would be beneficial for
Customized Training to consider offering package deals to help businesses afford training to
their employees. An example of this that could be considered is that for every five employees a
business trains, the sixth employee’s training is half off. Provided at the end of our report is a
pie chart displaying current budgets for the businesses surveyed.
The tenth objective answers an important question about clients preferred way of
receiving customized training. Looking at the results we can see that over 82% of businesses
prefer in-person, onsite. The second most popular way of receiving training is online with 35.5%
of businesses selecting it as a preferred method. Looking at these results, we would recommend
spending more time and energy developing and promoting the option of in-person onsite
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programs. By promoting the quality and convenience of the in-person on site training, you satisfy
the demands of many businesses in the area. By surveying 93 local businesses in the area and
having 82% of them select in-person onsite as a prefered method; one can see that there is a
significant need and want for training to occur at the businesses own facilities.
The eleventh objective goes over the basic demographics of the businesses surveyed. The
questions asked that determined the demographics were: the industry the business was in, the
size of the organization, and the location. It was determined that retail was the second most
prevalent, after “other”, of the businesses surveyed at 10.8%. Since Customized Training stated
that most of their business came from the financial, manufacturing, and IT sectors, this provides
an opportunity for the company to promote their services into the retail industry. Also, having
under ten employees was the most frequent response of the size of the businesses. Since
Customized Training stated that most of their business came from the financial, manufacturing,
and IT sectors, this provides an opportunity for the company to promote their services into the
retail industry and expand. It is also suggested that Customized Training should start focusing
and promoting their services to businesses located in McLean county, and those smaller firms
with under ten employees.
Strengths and limitations
There are several strengths related to this study. One strength being that the incentives
helped convince the businesses to take the survey for a chance to win either one of two free seats
in Heartland Community College Leadership class, or one of two $100 certificates toward a
Customized Training program for their business. The questions that were provided in the survey
allowed us to be able to analyze the results to the clients desired research objectives. The
questions were tailored so that the the answers were directly related to the research objectives.
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This also allowed us to get a general idea of the demographics of the businesses. Another
strength of this study is that a majority of the respondents were in medium to small businesses of
50 or fewer employees. This is a strength because Customized Training mostly serves small to
medium sized businesses so it gives us a more accurate depiction of their clients.
While this study had a few strengths, there were also several limitations to the research
study. One of the limitations for this study was that some of the surveys were being sent to
invalid or outdated emails. This caused a communication barrier that needed attention. Groups
then had to cold call the client list that was provided by Customized Training. Cold calling took
time and patience to get the businesses to take the survey. With only 93 responses, we were
limited with results. A third limitation was that 72% of respondents were from the Bloomington-
Normal area. Customized Training’s target market is Bloomington, Pontiac, and Lincoln, so this
limits the research findings to only one section being a majority of the research findings.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, after analyzing the research findings from the businesses surveyed, we
have found that Customized Training has many opportunities to go and gather more clients. We
have provided several suggestions that will assist Customized Training in expanding their
business to the Bloomington/Normal, Pontiac, and Lincoln area.
A majority of respondents said they were made aware of training and development
programs via email. Respondents also said, emails are their preferred way of communication.
This is quality information for Customized Training to hold onto. Due to the budgets of the
companies, email is a great way to reach businesses. Emails can be personalized to express to
the businesses that Customized Training is a great company that is focused towards providing the
businesses employees with high quality training and development skills.
Another finding that was expressed through results, is that many of the area businesses
are unaware of Customized Training’s existence. Once again, communication through email can
be beneficial for Customized Training to get their name known to potential customers. A
suggestion, would be to provide an incentive such as a packaged deal or a contract based system,
so businesses choose to work with Customized Training rather than a training and development
program that they have previously worked with.
This can follow into our next finding which is the barriers that prevent businesses from
hiring training and development programs; budget and time. If Customized Training was to use a
packaged deal or some sort of loyalty program for returning customers, businesses who are
dealing with lower training budgets could bundle their training together and let Customized
training be there one point of contact for training needs. Dealing with the time barrier,
Customized Training should market their ability to train online and to go to businesses and train
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them in their own facilities. Businesses can do the training on their own time at their own
convenience and there is a huge opportunity to market the convenience and time that will be
saved using these services.
Our overall recommendation is that Customized training needs to listen to what their
customers are using training budgets for, such as Customer Service or Marketing, and they need
to reach out to these businesses through email with specific trainings to fit their needs.
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References
Harward, Doug (2012), "Key Trends for 2012: Mid-Year Review." (accessed February 10,
2014),
[available at <http://www.trainingindustry.com/articles/key-trends-for-2012-mid-year-
review.aspx>].
"Illinois Small Business Development Center." (accessed February 10, 2014), [available at
http://business.illinoisstate.edu/sbdc/].
Kelly Services (2013), "Kelly Global Workforce Index." (accessed February 10, 2014),
[available at <http://www.kellyservices.ca/CA/About-Us/Kelly-Global-Workforce-Index/
#.U115uyjMA20>].
McLean County Chamber of Commerce "Professional Development." (accessed April 25, 2014),
[available at http://www.mcleancochamber.org/programs-and-services/professional-
development].
United States Census Bureau (2014), "McLean County QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau."
(accessed April 27, 2014), [available at<http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/17/17113.html>].
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Graphs
Organization Budgets
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Sources of Information
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Survey
Customized Training Survey to Surrounding Businesses
Customized Training Survey
The Customized Training department at Heartland Community College is a comprehensive training organization that strives to enhance the economic well-being of Central Illinois by providing tailored continuing education opportunities to meet the unique needs of businesses in our communities. Business students at Illinois State University are conducting marketing research to help Customized Training get a better understanding of the market they serve.
Businesses can rely on Customized Training at Heartland Community College to provide high quality professional development for their employees. Working with the College is easy and convenient for businesses. The Customized Training department helps businesses clarify their learning priorities and goals for their employees, then develops and delivers targeted training solutions when, where and how the business wants it. This personalized service enables businesses to focus on their regular priorities and responsibilities while maximizing their employee training investment.
Please take a few minutes to complete the following brief survey. Although there may be no direct benefit to you, your participation will help Heartland’s Customized Training department better understand and respond to the training and professional development needs of small and medium sized businesses in Central Illinois. There are no risks involved with participation beyond those of everyday life.
This survey is brief and should take no more than ten minutes of your time. Your participation in this study is voluntary, and if you choose not to participate or to withdraw from the study at any time, there will be no penalty or loss of benefits. Any information that might allow someone to identify you will not be disclosed. Survey participants have the option to enter a drawing to receive: (1) one of two free seats in a Heartland Community College Leadership class or (2) one of two $100 certificates toward a Customized Training program for your business.
If you have any questions concerning this study, you can contact Dr. Horace Melton at (309) 438-3845 or [email protected], or the ISU Research Ethics & Compliance Office for questions about participant research rights at (309) 438-2529. Thanks for your cooperation!
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1. Please identify the industry of your organization:
a. Education b. Insurance c. Manufacturing d. Information Technology e. Retail f. Public Service (non-profit) g. Government h. Agriculture i. Health and Fitness j. Banking/Financial Servicesk. Other (please specify) ____________________________
2. What is your role within your organization?
a. Senior Leader (Owner/CEO/President/SVP) b. Divisional/Departmental Leader c. Frontline Staff
3. What is the size of your organization?a. Under 10 employees b. 11-25 c. 26-50 d. 51-75 e. 76-100 f. 101 or more employees
4. What is your preferred method to offer training and development to employees? (check all that apply)a. Online b. In-person, on-site c. In-person, off-site d. Self-Study e. Self-Directed Group
5. Who receives training and development in your organization? (check all that apply)a. Executivesb. Managers, exemptc. Non-managers, exemptd. Non-exempt Employees
6. On average, how many hours of training and development did your employees receive over the past year? _____________
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7. From what type of training and development do you think your organization could benefit? (check all that apply)a. Executive Development b. Management/Supervisory Trainingc. Customer Service d. IT/Systems Training (e.g., enterprise software) e. Desktop Application Trainingf. Project Management g. Sales and Marketing h. Language and Communications i. Industry-Specific Training j. Team Building k. Human Resources l. Social Media m. Other (please specify) _____________________________
8. Does your organization offer internal training and development opportunities?a. Yes, we have an internal department for that. b. Yes, but we bring in outside professionals for this function. c. No, we go outside the organization for all training. d. No, we do not offer this to our employees.
9. Do you or others within your organization seek training and development opportunities that award CEU’s (Continuing Education Units)?a. Yes (please specify the designation for which you seek CEU’s, e.g., PHR, CPLP, CPA, etc.)_________________________________________________________________________b. No
10. Please identify what is preventing your organization from receiving the training and development needed. (check all that apply)a. We are receiving the training and development without any problems b. Budget c. Lack of time d. Unable to train all staff at once e. Unable to locate the training and development we need f. Unable to identify the training and development we need g. We lack access to suitable facilities h. Other (please specify) ____________________________________________________________
11. In your organization, who decides what training and development employees receive?a. The employee decides with some or no input from management. b. The employee decides based on a path outlined for them. c. Management directs employees to needed programs. d. The organization engages in programs based on needs as they arise. e. We do not engage in training and development.
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12. What pain points are you currently experiencing in your organization?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
13. How much did your organization budget this year for training and development?a. We have no money budgeted for training and development b. $100-$2,500 c. $2,501-$5,000 d. $5,001-$7,500 e. $7,501-$10,000 f. Over $10,000 g. I don’t have that information available
14. What type of training and development are you currently offering your employees?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
15. Which of the following resources have you utilized for on-going training and development? (check all that apply)a. McLean County Chamber of Commerce b. For credit college coursework at any higher education institution c. Heartland Community College Customized Trainingd. SCORE e. Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center f. University of Illinois Extensiong. Illinois Small Business Development Center at Illinois State University
h. Other (please specify) __________________________________________________________________
16. How have you learned about training and development opportunities for your business? (check all that apply)a. Newslettersb. Professional publicationsc. Emailsd. Mailerse. Web searchesf. Referralsg. Other (please specify) __________________________________________________________________
17. What is your preferred way to receive information about training and development opportunities? (check all that apply)a. Newslettersb. Professional publications
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c. Emailsd. Mailerse. Web searchesf. Referralsg. Other (please specify) __________________________________________________________________
18. Prior to receiving this survey, were you aware of the services provided by the Customized Training department at Heartland Community College?a. Yesb. No (skip question 19)
19. If you were aware of the College’s Customized Training, how did you first learn about it?a. Websiteb. Mailerc. Emaild. Word of mouthe. Other (please specify) __________________________________________________________________
20. In which county is your business located?a. Livingston (Pontiac, IL)b. Logan (Lincoln, IL)c. Mclean (Bloomington/Normal, IL)d. Other (please specify) ____________________________________________________
21. If you would like to be entered in the drawing for one of the following incentives, please provide your name and email address. Winners of the drawing will receive (1) one of two free seats in a Heartland Community College Leadership class or (2) one of two $100 certificates toward a Customized Training program for your business. Researchers will separate your prize drawing contact information from your survey responses, to avoid allowing anyone to identify you from your survey responses.
22. If you are interested in learning more about Customized Training and would like someone from the department to contact you, please provide your name and email address.______________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your participation in our Survey!
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