Buyers of training are more likely to base their purchasing decisions on the potential for long-term relationships with their supplier than on costs alone.
This is one of the results from a survey of reader preferences, carried out in Training Magazine and sponsored by venues operator the Sundial Group.
In order of importance, the key criteria in making the purchasing decisions are revealed as:
– providers’ understanding of customers’ needs in order to provide a tailored service
– competence and capability of employees providing the service
– cost.
These trends mark a complete U-turn on how professionals select suppliers, compared with a similar survey three years’ ago. At that time, 73 per cent said that they selected a training supplier purely on price, but in the latest survey, 89 per cent said that price was not a primary concern when selecting external supplier and facilities. And 92 per cent were looking to develop long-term relationships with external suppliers and facilities.
Other aspects of the survey showed how HR and training professionals feel about the daily pressures of their job.
Line managers are still the main obstacle, as they continue to be difficult to persuade of the value of training. They were cited by nearly half of all the respondents as being ‘unenthusiastic’.
Proving return on investment is now a key pressure compared with three years’ ago. The number of HR and training professionals feeling this has risen from one third to 46 per cent .
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In spite of these difficulties, the majority of HR and training managers are still committed to a long-term career, with 62 per cent focused on achieving a senior role in people development, which is 7 per cent more than three years’ ago.
There has been a slight increase in the number of respondents aspiring to a seat on the board, rising from 5 per cent to 11 per cent.
And the survey shows that personnel and training is still considered a viable long-term career, with more than a quarter of respondents being employed in the sector for more than 10 years. As many as 49 per cent work in the field for up to five years, which is a positive increase on three years’ ago, when less than one-third of respondents had worked in the profession for that same period.
