In today’s day and age, there are a fantastic number of corporate training companies and freelance corporate trainers available in the market. And having to chose one to fulfil your organisations’s training needs can be a really daunting task!
To make things easier for you, I’m listing down some things that every corporate training company or corporate trainer should be able to bring to the table. Let me know if it helps!
1. Experience
Yup, this has to be first on my list as its definitely the most important factor. The trainer should have a good number of years of experience. It’s important in training, as it indicates the probability of having dealt with different kinds of ‘difficult’ participants coming from different industries. And that’s one thing that trust me only comes with experience! It also indicates that you would have had that much more time to learn and experiment with various tools and techniques on various different topics. Which of course also depends on the curiosity levels and learning appetite of the trainer!
2. Exposure
A corporate trainer can have a core domain, no doubt, but will always have an edge if he/she can train on multiple topics. And that’s where I would say corporate training companies really have an edge over freelance corporate trainers. Companies have a large number of trainers on their panel, each experienced in a particular domain. They can therefore be your one stop shop for a larger number of training needs, giving you a chance to easily pick and choose. They may also have more exposure when it comes to handling participants at various levels and from different industries. This gives you the option to have a trainer on board who is well acquainted with your industry and its ways and that too for the level you require.
3. Customization
This is again very important. The trainer needs to be flexible enough and have enough experience to be able to customize the module to suit the audience’s needs. There are some trainers who are comfortable delivering a particular module in a particular way. And if you ask them to make changes, they can get a little uncomfortable. So be sure to connect with a company or trainer who is comfortable making changes. After all, you can’t afford to give your participants just a pain killer when what they actually need is an antibiotic!
4. Positivity and Presence
A trainer must be able to handle what may come up during a session; like difficult participants, unexpected doubts, technology suddenly giving way, etc. with positivity. And that’s what I mean by presence. I’m sure you’ll agree, that you really can’t deliver a session well without that presence and positivity! For if you go down, your participants are surely going to go down with you. And that will definitely put an unfortunate end to the learning.
Now these were my top 4. What are yours? What do you feel a corporate trainer must have?