5 Quick Steps to Get Your Development Dollars Approved
“How do I get my training approved?”
“Do you have a business case for training?”
“How do I get training approved when my expense budget is being cut?”
These are frequently asked questions for this time of year. End of year budget cuts are a common pain point, but they don’t have to be. To make things easier, below is a quick list that you can use when submitting your requests for training, conferences, and the like. Remember, unused budget dollars will be lost and often are subject to cuts next year. Don’t lose your budget dollars!
Before launching into the list, though, it’s important to shift your mindset to one of value. (Thankfully, we are BRMs, so this is easy).
Training is not an expense. Training is an investment. When organizations invest money, they expect to see some type of improvement—a change that outweighs the cost of the investment. A change that makes the post-investment world better than the pre-investment world. Just like any other investment consideration- let’s make it easy for leadership to see that value in investing in your training.
Now, the five steps:
Know where you are (and own it).
The Business Relationship Maturity Model – This is a great tool to determine relationship health and maturity level. Again, use the assessment at the bottom of the page. Even better, use it as a team. Are you all at the same level? Different levels? What’s working? Use the tools to determine where you have opportunities to grow.
© Business Relationship Management Institute
Know where you want to go (and the value in getting there).
Once you’ve completed your assessment, look at where you are and consider where you want to go. What’s the long-term goal? If you reach that goal, what changes for the enterprise? What changes for your team? Those changes are value points you can impact with your development plans.
Your boss needs more? ATD published a study which showed that organizations inveting in comprehensive training saw 218% ROI than companies that did not have formalized training. Not investing in training costs, big time. One landmark study found that organizations who invest in their employee training and upskilling, will see a rise in profit over companies who did not.
Know the right investments (and be an investment partner).
By now, you should have some idea of opportunities that can be addressed. Design a plan that clearly calls out the gaps and proposes a value-focused program to address them.
Generally, one training session alone will not take you from point A to point B. Instead, design a program that includes training, experiences, collaborative/partnership work, workshops, etc. It will give you a more well-rounded learning experience and offer you hands on skills that you can apply immediately while you continue to pursue professional development.
People are naturally drawn to invest in things that demonstrate value- show your worth by actively demonstrating your own value and commitment to growth.
Don’t Lose Future Training Dollars, Maximize Unused Budget Allocations.
Unused budget will be lost if not used by the end of the year, and typically, the unused budget is subject for cuts the following year. Now is the ideal opportunity to invest in training programs that will yield long-term benefits for your role, your team and your organization. This ensures that funds are used effectively to contribute to the growth and development of the business.
Be the investment.
Training approved and attended does not equate to value for your organization—or your career. Value comes with change. It comes with improvement.
Be the investment. Plan well, and execute against your plan. Measure the results, all the while watching for value leakage.
It’s all too common for all the investment value work to go into planning (such as a business case) when we’re trying to get the funds approved. Once approved, the value management on the back end of an investment rarely sees the benefits of a focused, deliberate approach.
This is an opportunity to show what solid value management practices can do, especially for investments—which is to say, you.
Be the investment. Plan well, and execute against your plan. Measure the results and watch for value leakage—opportunities to utilize what you learn in training.
When we get right down to it, organizations have very few expenses. Instead, they have an enormous portfolio of investments that live somewhere in the “expense budget.” When it comes to your career, be the investment.
Use these outlined steps above to outline your training plan for your leadership and you’ll find that getting allocated training dollars, isn’t as difficult as you original thought.