Q: I have been asked to update our strategic plan for this year. There are a couple of areas I’m looking to find more research information on, I’m hoping LERN can help. I’ve listed the request below. I would be looking for information for Professional Education at Higher Ed Institutions. (our audience are business professionals. Training classes in project management, leadership, etc.)
Please let me know if there is anything available as a LERN member. Thank you for your time and assistance on this.
Market data on training trends, innovations, hot content areas, average spend by person or company, in the market, and number used over the last 2-3 years
Information that compares:
Revenue to department size
Sample organization structures and sizes. (need data to support additional staff and relation to revenue growth
)
Job descriptions; pay structures for a sales person
Data on how many institutions contract their instructors or hire them.
I’ve also included a link to a survey I’ve sent to some of the ListServs I belong to.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ExecEdSurvey
A: Market data on training trends, innovations, hot content areas, average spend by person or company, in the market, and number used over the last 2-3 years.
The best source of information for this question would be the ASTD State of the Industry Report. This is an annual survey of the state of training in the US and trends in training. A summary of the report’s contents can be found here: http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2011/Nov/Free/Nov_11_Feature_State_of_the_Industry.htm
Information that compares:
Revenue to department size
It is important that your revenue be appropriate for the level of staffing you support. Here are LERN’s benchmarks:
1.20-25% of your budget should be spent on staff salaries (not benefits).
2.When you divide total revenue by staff positions responsible for revenue generation (so if someone is responsible for grants, for example, they would not be included), your staff productivity number should be $125,000 or higher.
3.That does not mean each staff person generates $125,000 because not everyone is a revenue generator. Salespeople and programmers are revenue generators, while operations and marketing staff support revenue generators.
4.Revenue generators should be generating on average 12 times their salary in revenue (the range is 6-20 times) in order to ensure the staff productivity number is $125,000 or higher.
5.The best way to ensure the 12 times salary is generated is by centralizing as much operations (registration, logistics, reporting, customer service and any other tasks that stop revenue generators from generating revenue) as possible. Centralization cannot happen overnight, thus brainstorming and prioritizing tasks to centralize is the best strategy.
6.In order to handle the centralized tasks, a) the number of operations staff is normally larger than the number of programming or sales staff ("normally" 2 operations staff for 1 revenue generator) and b) the operations staff uses a software system built for continuing education where 50%+ of registrations are generated online and operations staff can collect the required data and run the critical reports, such as go/no-go.
7.In reorganizing to a this type of structure, you always focus on operations first. Make sure operations has the proper staffing (outsourcing for some tasks may be an option) and the "right" software system is being used. Just to push tasks on existing operations staff (unless they are underutilized) is not the best strategy.
Sample organization structures and sizes. (need data to support additional staff and relation to revenue growth)
I have attached an article about "The Right Structure" for staffing along with a PDF of a LERN PowerPoint on the topic for your reference. You will also find detailed information in LERN's Restructuring Staff manual at http://lern.org/registration/testCart/default.cfm?ProductID=779&do=detail&CFID=2273136&CFTOKEN=c535b972c4746f3a-663D230C-B8AC-6F12-C8CF44592636B9CD
Job descriptions; pay structures for a sales person
Please see the attached documents.
Data on how many institutions contract their instructors or hire them.
This is a very complicated question. It is still the case that most institutions have contract arrangements with their instructors, but recent crackdowns by the IRS on organizations classifying their workers as contractors has led many to shift to an employment situation. A LERN white paper on this topic is attached.