Thanks for your interest in the previous post, where we shared 4 keys to success when planning and rolling out an international training programme.
As anticipated, let’s introduce 4 further keys today!
5- Consider culture, language and local features.
How much should it vary per region?
Don’t wait for your local colleagues to ask you to make twists and tweaks in the programme to make it relevant for their region: play it proactively, defining what the “local spice” of your corporate programme will be. You may think you can live without this until someone crashes your meeting with a request for this… or even worse if it is later, when engagement metrics and results are not what you expected. Some mottos you can as well convert into mantras: “Translation is not localization”, “English is not English”, or simply “A here is B there”.
6- Staff and onboard the right trainers.
Who are my envoys?
You may have your internal trainers, the vendor’s trainers or a mixed group: make sure that they can be the representatives of your organization in terms of style, cultural match, background and expertise. Engage these trainers so they see the big picture, they are aligned with the company values and they can convey the messages. Give them context, explain them what your delegates’ journey looks like in the company, what they already know and what they’d expect from the programme. Team up with them, so they know which is their role and actions in the bigger process (i.e. make them “be part” instead of just “doing their part”).
7- Keep budget and admin under control.
Taking a broader look, what else do I need to manage?
Global rollouts may involve some costs you don’t usually deal with in local deployments, and they usually entail a great deal of stakeholder management. Allocate enough time and budget for programme design (or fine tuning) and anticipate the needed rounds of validation (you may also involve your local stakeholders). Figure out the best deployment strategy and seek clarity of cost per region, per cohort, per participant, and don’t forget to calculate total cost of ownership instead of just “total amount of vendor invoices” (e.g. travel, accommodation, venue, meals, process costs…). Agree the best contracting, admin and invoicing scheme with your procurement and admin departments. Check if your HR system is ready to integrate and support the programme worldwide. Create a global calendar considering holidays and high business periods… Wow, anything else? Well… Certainly there is more, but let’s keep it “simple” for today…
8- Monitor the consistency of the rollout.
Is this working as expected?
We’ve briefly mentioned the milestones of programme sign-off and trainer onboarding, and then it’s very likely you’ll want to run some pilot sessions before hard launch (in fact, defining your launch and rollout strategy is also another key to consider). Still after all that, you will keep following up closely on feedback and KPIs collected from the programme. Therefore, it’s important to maintain regular checkpoints with the local stakeholders to learn from their experience in each region and eventually make programme adaptations.
This completes the series of 8 keys to success. Check the summary in the video below! Of course there’s more to unveil for each of the keys… we may go more in-depth in future posts.
Do reach out to us if you want us to explore one in particular. Also, add your comments if there anything you are missing here.
