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 In the first blog surrounding L&D in March, I discussed how key it is for recruitment companies to stay ahead of the game in the current market and being setup to be agile in an ever-changing economic environment. L&D is one of those functions that can help most here, spotting trends, facilitating new training, driving consultants to find their weaknesses and be able to level up across the board. But which L&D approach is best for your agency to enable you to find success in today’s recruitment market. I’ll be exploring the benefits of different approaches you can take as a business leader in recruitment.

In-House L&D: Cultivating a learning culture from within

1.     Cost Efficiency: While having an internal L&D trainer/leader may seem costly when looking at it initially, it often proves more cost-efficient over time and allows you the opportunity to continuously refine, improve and reuse training materials without incurring a cost every time.

2.     Tailor to your needs: Having somebody in-house allows them the chance to observe, learn and take-in the culture and approach of your business. This will allow training programmes to be designed to match and will likely lead to a better uptake of information and a more open approach from employees in wanting to learn from someone within, rather than someone they don’t really know.

3.     Reinforcing Values: Training from within gives you the opportunity to consistently reinforce your culture and values, helping to keep a close-knit environment, driving belonging and dedication and naturally leading to higher retention rates, a well-known challenge in recruitment.

Hybrid L&D: Getting the best of both worlds

1.     Allowing for adaptability: As earlier mentioned, being forward focused and ahead of the game is key. This model allows for a flexible learning culture where you can implement those internal touches to training whilst also drawing on external wisdom which often could be missed or not known internally.

2.     Cost flexibility: Having an internal trainer and being able to use external support allows you to be cost-flexible, where you can spend where needed on further support but cut back in times where not needed. You’ll be aware of your baseline cost for L&D but you can set out a further budget to be accessed when required at different points in your businesses journey.

3.     Customise external insights: Blending internal resources and external expertise will allow you to create customised training programmes with top-tier content. It allows for relevance to company objectives while benefitting from industry wide best practice.

External L&D: Tapping into expertise outside of your company

1.     Utilising specialists: While you might not have that internal touch to your training, you have the opportunity to choose from many options and know that what an external trainer is providing will be top tier and gives you access to new techniques and insights.

2.     Time-efficient: If you need a rapid fix on a focused issue, then L&D programmes run by external trainers are the way to go. While their training modules might not be personalised, they are always ready to go and ready to deliver. This agility can be crucial in fast-changing market conditions.

3.     Networking opportunities: Having your employees attend external workshops, courses or events will expose them to wider industry networks. This can open up new partnerships, business opportunities and potentially give a better understanding of market trends outside of your business.

While it’s obvious that many factors will adjust what direction you take when it comes to L&D, these few reasons should help point you in the right direction as to what your need is. Usually coming down to Time, Quality or Cost, L&D can be flexible across the three but requires you to sit down and look at what you need, and why you need it before taking steps to implement it.

Ultimately, investing in an L&D strategy is not just something that can be done overnight and takes proper planning and preparation. By investing in the right L&D strategy, recruitment companies can empower teams, drive client satisfaction, drive long-term growth and most importantly, help to increase company profitability and revenue per head.

If you’re interested in learning more about how your business compares to other agencies we have helped support in finding the right L&D person for them, drop me a message on LinkedIn or reach out on my details below.

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