So it seems that the world’s financial situation is getting worse, not better. I’m sitting writing this barely 1km North of Wall Street, the focal point of all American news, policy decision-making, presidential candidate speeches and grey hairs for the last two weeks.

I’ve already heard of numerous people losing their jobs here on Manhattan – one poor guy was retrenched from Bear Stearns only to move to Lehman’s and be retrenched again – and many signs point to the start of the next global depression, let alone recession.

With all the doom and gloom predictions in the air, companies are naturally looking to tighten their belts and lower costs. But just because the global economy is taking a knock doesn’t mean competition will decrease (unless you happen to be one of the few surviving financial firms in America…). In fact, isn’t quite the opposite is likely to be true as companies defend their bottom lines?

If the competition is increasing, there is even more need to have a competent workforce knowledgeable of the company offerings, able to communicate efficiently, able to sell prodigiously, cogniscent of financial discipline and generally good at what it does.

So, I would argue 2 things:

1. Training is MORE necessary than ever in times like these
2. e-Learning is the ideal solution for delivering more for less

Typically we estimate that e-Learning can save organisations up to 60% of their total training costs. It saves money in the following ways:

1. The content is reusable so costs decrease over time and use
2. Expensive face-to-face time is reduced or eliminated
3. Travel costs, hotel costs and subsistence costs are non-existent
4. Time away from the office is reduced meaning reduced impact on operations
5. Reduced lag time between learning and application

It’s not just about the cost savings since points 4 and 5 above provide efficiency gains, making a company more agile – another need-to-have in an environment of increasing competition.

If ever you thought that e-Learning was worth further investigation, now is the ideal time.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 9:55 pm and is filed under e-Learning in South Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.