How Live Streaming Can Increase Your Corporate Training, Even With A Reduced Budget

Let’s face the truth. When purse strings get tight, one of the first things to get slashed is training. It seems counter intuitive, but it happens.

Errors from inadequate training can cost as much as 20% of a budget.

Not doing things right the first time also impacts many areas of your

business:

Unexpected downtime Customer relations

Company reputation regarding quality of products and services

Inventory reconciliation

The list goes on and each item takes time and more money to correct.

But if you do something right the first time, all of this can be avoided.

This is why training is key.

Why should you continue to train even in tough times?

It has been estimated by Merrill Lynch that every pound spent on training yields £20 in productivity gains within three years. (Merrill Lynch, “The Book of Knowledge”).

If you are worried about training someone and then having him or her

leave … then you need to look at the flip side of that equation. Why

would you keep someone around who isn’t trained properly?

According to a 2003 study done by the American Society for

Training and Development, 41% of employees at companies with less

than adequate training programs plan to leave within a year. That is

compared to only 12% in a company that provides strong training

and professional development programs.

So what is the solution to the high cost of training?

Instead of eliminating training, it is imperative to figure out a less

expensive way to provide the opportunities for training. Today’s

technology provides an alternative to costly in-house training. You no

longer need to bring everyone to you, or send a trainer out to remote

locations.

Live streaming allows you to bring the training to where the employees

are located. You can save on the costs of travel, conference facilities,

lodging, meals, personnel time and all of the other costs associated

with on location training

Now you can use live streaming to hold one training session and

reach as many locations as you want all at once.

In 2003, Cisco reported a savings of US $18.1M through the use of

live video events within their corporation. (Streaming Video Case

Study: How Cisco Uses Streaming Video for Worldwide Corporate

Events and Training.) And that is just one study.

What is live streaming?

Live streaming is audio or video media streamed in real time to

another or multiple locations. It’s simple to do and cost effective.

However, the cost varies and depends upon a number of factors

including:

The quality/bit rate of the broadcast,

The number of concurrent viewers and

The duration of the broadcast.

Your requirements determine the configuration that will maximize the

training experience for you and for your employees. So the final cost

depends on what you need.

Another money saving aspect of live streaming is that if you think

you may need more than one session, you can record the live stream

event. Then, using video on demand you can show it a later time.

By continuing training in your company even with a tight budget,

you’ll retain more employees and lower overall costs incurred from

lack of training. You’ll be far ahead of the many companies who look at

training as a discretionary line item on the budget ledger. Their loss is

your gain.

To learn more about using live streaming or on demand streaming for

training within your company, download our white paper: How Live

Streaming Can Help Your Organisation Reach More People. In the

report you’ll find some examples of how streaming helped other

companies, and the seven things you need to know about choosing a

streaming provider.