There will inevitably come a time when your organization will have to outsource help from third-party vendors; whether you’re outsourcing because of your organization’s limited technology capabilities or because you require more human capital, you’ll want to be prepared to work with the following six types of vendors.
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1. E-Learning Systems
Your organization should rely on an e-learning system vendor. These vendors typically offer customizable solutions that help organizations plan and implement employee development programs, e-learning technology, and learning strategies and content, as well as blended learning approaches. Small organizations can also find an e-learning vendor to suit their needs and that can align with their organizational growth.
2. Career Development
Employees want long-term career paths and career maps with their employers, and the solutions some vendors offer include career development solutions such as succession planning, coaching plans and strategies, and sometimes even mentorship programs. These solutions help employers chart employees’ career goals and trajectories over the long term and offer learning tools and content for employees who want to advance in their careers.
3. Diversity and Workplace Sexual Harassment Solutions
Since the #MeToo movement and Starbucks’ mandatory unconscious bias training, more organizations are conducting mandatory harassment prevention training, and many vendors are offering more comprehensive solutions for workplace sexual harassment prevention and diversity training. You’ll want to invest in these solutions to ensure your employees feel protected in the workplace.
4. Training Materials and Online Courses
Because automation and personalization now reign supreme, there’s so much content to create and manage that sometimes, L&D professionals need help curating this content or online courses for their learners. But luckily, there are multiple vendors out there that can help create or curate learning materials or online courses for an organization and its employees. These vendors can also help L&D professionals better manage their existing L&D content.
For more details, read “Best Practices for Curating Content for Your LMS.”
5. Skills Training
As an L&D professional, you’ll want to invest in vendor software or solutions that allow you to easily and quickly upskill your current employees. This skills training should include materials and courses for tech-related skills in addition to soft skills. By upskilling current employees, an organization can increase its competitive advantage in the modern-day environment.
Communications
L&D professionals should employ vendors that enable their organization to expand communications across the workplace to foster a more collaborative and transparent environment, and these solutions should encompass communications-based skills training, as well as emotional intelligence training and environments for social learning.
Tomorrow’s post will add six more vendors to the above list that L&D professionals will want to work with and why.