Matthew BernsteinProject Engineer| Biz Dev 6Houston, Tx, United States
The company I am working for wants me to roll out a training to 100 engineers, specifically for aconex document control. However there is no budget for this training. So I can't pull the engineers, drafters, and managers into a meeting to train them because there is no money for that.
The company has proveded a set of online training resources for Aconex, and this is a self service model. Users can come and learn at their own pace. The company is unable to provide a specific training buget and every one here is paid on project hours, no overhead.
Technically, I don't have any overhead to provide the training either.
Is there any advice you could provide me on how to handle this situation? Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
That’s a tough spot, Mathew. The only thing I can think of is you asking the staff if they are willing to do professional development at their own time without pay. Some might opt to invest in this. Saving Changes...
Sounds like they're asking you to do something unethical. Hiding overhead in project budgets can actually be a tax code violation if projects generate revenue. It's a different color of money.
If the training is mandatory, asking them to take it on their own time can also be a violation of state minimum wage laws. If you go that route, I would be very careful to ensure you tell them that it is purely optional.
With on-demand web based training, you could inform everyone about the training, and track completion. With no budget though, it may go painfully slow which might encourage management to come up with the budget. Better yet, if you have quality metrics to show the cost of not taking training (errors X time) you may be able to show how the training pays for itself. Saving Changes...
One approach is to focus what they need to know on the specific procedures they will perform in the tools. If the user guide or standard operating procedure manual is explicit enough, folks can use those as alternatives to focused training.
Of course, this requires someone to develop a quality user guide or SOP document...
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