Globalizing Corporate eLearning: 6 Costs To Take Into Consideration
Training your worldwide workforce is an integral part of realizing your corporate goals. To do so, you need to globalize your corporate eLearning program. It goes without saying that you will incur extra costs. However, understanding these expenses beforehand enables you to create a more accurate budget in order to maximize your resources. So, which are the 6 costs you should consider when globalizing corporate eLearning?
1. Technology
A global online training program will require more eLearning content development tools for each country you are present in. To achieve homogenous online training, you need to have a single content source. Developing a single content source will require you to use specialized technology at a cost. Your technology must be compatible with the translation process. How importing and exporting online training content that requires translation will be conducted, has to be planned and budgeted for. The technology must also accommodate all the alphanumeric characters for the languages you’re supporting. If the technology you have does not meet these requirements, you need to invest in a new LMS platform. You should also consider whether your LMS is up to the task. Many modern Learning Management Systems support multiple languages. Some even offer geolocation features that automatically display relevant online training courses based on the user’s location.
2. eLearning Content Development
When globalizing corporate eLearning, eLearning content development costs require a sizable portion of your budget. The online training content you develop for each region needs to be compatible with the organizational goals. When developing the online training course, you should hire someone to analyze the online training content so that it can be adapted across while taking into account cultural preferences, beliefs, and societal norms. During the eLearning content development process, use eLearning authoring tools that allow you to easily translate, import and export online training content. Real-world examples and case studies must be localized during eLearning content development. The graphics used should not be offensive to any of the cultures. Therefore, for some cultures, you might need to change the graphics. To achieve this, you need to hire people who are skilled to modify and localize online training content in each market.
3. Dedicated Local Staff
Going global necessitates the hiring of new staff. Therefore, hiring is included among the major costs that occur when globalizing corporate eLearning. In some cases, you might reassign staff or bring new team members on board. Online training globalization calls for planning, processing, redesigning modules and writing curricula. To achieve this, you may need to hire independent contractors and Subject Matter Experts who are well versed on the topics for localization purposes. And let’s not forget the eLearning Project Manager who ensures that everything runs smoothly and serves as a line of communication between the organization’s central hub and the localized branch.
4. Training
Successful globalization teams require a significant amount of training, so this too must be taken into account among other costs when globalizing corporate eLearning. Your teams may be experienced in their field, but they must also know your organization inside and out. Bear in mind that no two individuals are the same, and they all possess different skills. The demands of the various positions will require individualized training and ongoing support. In addition to your localization team, the regional managers and online training facilitators must also be brought up to speed. All this requires an investment of both time and money. You have to invest in payroll hours for the necessary training and to create the support resources that team leaders require, such as online training tutorials that show them how to utilize the new LMS. Designing the online training course and localizing online training content will also impact your budget. This is mainly because the online training content must be translated into different languages and transmitted via multiple mobile devices.
5. Help Desk Support
Truthfully, not everybody is familiar with corporate eLearning. Employing a capable customer support team to answer all queries, whether simple or technical, should be a top priority. A good help desk support team must be people-oriented. This means that the personnel you hire should understand the culture of your target audience. Hire a team that understands the language of the people, or train them to understand it. Globalizing corporate eLearning means that you will have to train your support team. Of course, you will not only train them to answer queries but also how to master interpersonal skills, such as communication and conflict resolution skills to avoid scenarios where help desk employees are perceived as being rude. Therefore, you need financial resources to ensure you have a competent team to speed up the realization of your goals.
6. Developing A Learning Culture
Developing a learning culture will greatly influence online training globalization costs. Not all the members of your staff are tech savvy. Therefore, you need to train and encourage them to adapt the usage of new technology. Also, to make the corporate eLearning course interesting, you may want to consider rewards. Incentives motivate employees to perform well in the corporate eLearning course, but they come at an extra cost. Even if you aren’t offering free gift cards or monetary rewards, there’s still the design aspect to think about. For example, integrating badges and points into your online training program takes time and resources. Your L&D team must restructure the entire online training course to implement these game mechanics. After that, they create supplemental marketing materials or online training tutorials so that employees know how to participate and what’s involved.
Taking these 6 costs into consideration when globalizing corporate eLearning will allow you to come up with creative ways to minimize them. Planning ahead for these expenses will help to avoid running out of funds before you have a chance to launch the corporate eLearning course. Use this article to create a more accurate budget that factors in hidden fees and costs that are more difficult to quantify.
Are you ready to expand your online training program on a global scale? Download our free eBook Going Global: How To Create Online Training Experiences For A Worldwide Audience to discover how to globalize your online training and build successful eLearning localization teams, as well as how to develop personalized online training content for a global audience and which LMS reports to monitor for successful globalized online training.