In this episode, we're sharing a webinar with Teresa Chiaputo and Debbie Wooldridge discussing the art and science of working with staffing providers in the learning and development industry. They explore strategies for meeting evolving needs, such as adding more employees to the L&D team, purchasing off-the-shelf training, partnering with L&D staffing providers, or ignoring the problems altogether. They also discuss the importance of conducting training needs analysis, navigating talent needs and bridging skill gaps, cultivating a crew that sails in harmony and sparks innovation, and navigating change and future-proofing staffing strategies.

The conversation emphasizes the need for adaptability, embracing emerging technologies, and fostering a culture of innovation and adaptability. In this part of the conversation, Debbie and Teresa showcase three client stories from different industries: financial, pharmaceutical, and e-commerce. They discuss the challenges faced by each client and the strategies implemented to address those challenges. They also emphasize the importance of cultural fit, navigating talent waters, and staying agile in the L&D realm.

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Welcome back to Learning Matters. I'm your host, Doug Wooldridge. And this week we have Debbie Wooldridge, CEO and founder of TTC Innovations, as well as Teresa Chiaputo, VP of Sales, discussing the art and science of working with staffing providers. Let's get to the webinar. Welcome everyone to today's session, the art and science of working with staffing providers. My name is Teresa Chiaputo. And if you'll notice,

My current title says account executive, but first and foremost, I'm a learning professional. Had the privilege of working in the learning and development field for over 25 years. This journey has been incredibly rewarding and has allowed me to witness the transformative power of building strong relationships with L &D staffing providers to enable teams to be adapted to an ever -changing environment. I initially worked with TTC as a client at a large company.

financial institution. I led a really large design and development team. And after multiple projects, I soon became a TTC evangelist and later made the leap to becoming part of the TTC innovations team. TTC is a premier L &D staffing organization dedicated to one core mission. We believe learning matters and that everyone deserves the opportunity to grow, leading to a fulfilled life and a positive impact on the world.

We are dedicated to connecting learning professionals with their dream work and empowering companies to create impactful learning experiences that drive change. I am joined today by my friend, my mentor, and the CEO, Debbie Wooldridge. Debbie, would you like to share some thoughts about how TTC brings our mission to life before we dive into sharing our agenda for the day? Sure, absolutely. Hi, everybody. I'm so excited to be here with you today.

As Teresa said, I am the CEO and founder of TTC Innovations, also the converter of bringing her into the organization. So I'm thrilled to be able to partner with her for the past few years. We won't say how many. The way that we realize our mission every day is by matching the top 2 % of L &D talent with our clients. We provide the right support.

at the right time to ensure that our clients and their employees receive effective and relevant learning opportunities. I'm excited to discuss a topic with you all that's vital to the success of L &D in today's dynamic landscape. And it's really kind of the guts behind why we do what we do each and every day. So we're excited to bring to you the art and science of working with staffing providers.

And to kick us off, this is a little snapshot of what we're going to be talking about today. And as learning and HR professionals, this information is truly tailored to you because you play a pivotal role in shaping how the work gets done in your organization. Whether you're a team of one or managing an entire learning organization, this webinar is your secret weapon to make sure that you and your team seem like a time traveling style savvy ninja,

who works 24 -7, while staying chill as cucumbers whenever a new challenge drops in.

As we get started in today's session, I just wanted to share with you that I think that everybody will get so much more value out of the session if we make this as interactive as possible. So Theresa and I have added some points throughout the presentation where we're going to really reach out to you to gather some of your expertise and opinions on what we put together. So while we have a ton of great content planned, we hope that you enjoy us by engaging in some fun pulls that we're going to do.

that you'll put any questions that you have in the chat box, and that you keep your eye out for some amazing freebies that we're going to share at the end of the session. We'll definitely have time for questions and answers at the conclusion of our time today, so please don't hesitate to go ahead and chat in your questions as they come to mind. All right, now that we have the housekeeping out of the way, Teresa, let's get rolling.

All right, thank you so much. I'm so excited. I almost interrupted you two. So today we're going to focus, we're going to start at a really high level today. And as we go through our session, we're going to continue to dive a little bit deeper through each of these pieces. But we're going to start today with just some common strategies that you can use to meet evolving needs, both on your team and with your business partners as well. So we have four that we

commonly see in our industry L &D. One of them is everybody's favorite. If you work on a team inside a company is adding more employees to your L &D team. Everybody's favorite, raise the hand as soon as money is ready to bring you to expand your team. This particular approach allows for you to have greater control over your projects and foster some in -depth collaboration for your team. Another option is to purchase off the shelf training.

which we hear about all the time. There's all sorts of available solutions. But this type of training can provide a quick and cost -effective way to meet immediate needs. They are readily available and they can be deployed swiftly. The next is partnering with an expert L &D sapping provider. This option is a little bit unique and it allows you to infuse a dash of specialized mastery into your training initiatives by collaborating with external contractors.

Some organizations do choose to ignore the evolving landscape and persist with their existing methods. However, this approach can lead to missed opportunities and decline in the effectiveness of their L &D efforts. So today, we want to dive deeper into the concept of supplementing your team with external contractors. It has become very commonplace in the last few years. However, it still remains a challenge to find a source

the right talent for your specific need. I hear it every day as I'm talking to clients. We're gonna explore some strategy insight on how to identify and acquire the ideal external talent to enhance your L &D capabilities effectively.

Let's dig in. All right. Well, let's pause for just a moment. And everybody, if you could just take a moment to answer the question in the chat. How do you and your team keep pace with the changing changes and evolving needs and expectations of your business part?

So take just a minute and use the chat so that we can see what types of things you're doing. I know we're getting them to think already. I hope that you're in a rest of you and your brains are already on go and ready to answer questions. All right, great. So we're seeing a few people adding comments in. So please do be sure to use your chat feature. And it looks like we're seeing a couple of people who really just kind of.

schedule ongoing meetings with their business partners to identify what's going on and really what is the most urgent thing. I think also one of the challenges that folks are facing is figuring out how to prioritize the changes, building time in for flexibility in the project plan. What a great idea to ensure that the scope is not affected. Yeah, that's... Yeah, right? Definitely so. So we do know that...

It's not just learning and development team leads and HR professionals who have to keep aware of the changing situation and the evolving needs, but the business partners and having those regular check -ins and making sure that your project plans allow for that flexibility will really help lead to that. So, Teresa, can you share some additional strategic, some additional strategies? Sorry, that might be more specific.

All right. So what I want you guys to focus down on today is how do you help your team get really focused on how they're going to help the company navigate next year into things that they're going to do differently or need to do differently? And how is your team going to be able to support those requests coming in? So I want you to use that lens as we go through kind of the next section, which is absolutely the

the big four, the four essential strategies to help you pinpoint both short -term and long -term staffing requirements and decide on most suitable staffing approach for your team, your environment, and the unique circumstances you face. The first one is called charting the course. And we're gonna go ahead and unpack that one.

So in this first strategic move, as you're thinking, and this is really a great time to think about this, because I know everybody's planning for next year and doing their budgets, et cetera. But as you think through, what does next year need to look like on our L &D team? What are the skill gaps that my team may have based on where we want to go with, say, emerging technologies? And then what training requests are going to come in to us? I don't know about you, but it seems like,

businesses and companies are asking for more and more and more. And there is the ability now to do so much more and stretch the envelope so much more than it used to be. So this first step is around really looking at the big picture and asking yourself or your team three questions. First of all, what are your teams, what are your L &D's team's goals to support your company in successfully navigating to new land?

We're gonna put a little twist on this. Like we're gonna go for a sailing course here. The next one is what skillsets does your team need to possess while navigating to new lands using emerging technologies? And can your team generate enough wind or capacity to fill the sails and propel your company forward? This just isn't about addressing challenges for today, but it's really setting the boards for the future. Your organizational purpose must always work

towards success. So with that said, we're gonna give you another thinking thing here to kind of carry on what you're doing. It's a poll question. I want you to answer what changes need to occur for your L &D team to navigate the uncharted waters of 2024. You do have some choices there. There is other at the bottom. If you choose other, we'd love to hear what the other is in the chat feature. We'll give everybody just a moment. So you're wearing a hat.

Give a minute to think about that one. Yeah. You should. All right. Got a pretty good response rate. So I will. Right. Let's see it. Five, four, three, two, there we go. All right. I love that. All of the above. That's that's that is what we hear all the time. So you guys are right in the thick of things. We did have a few others. So did Jenny, did they.

Put in the chat what those others might be.

Not yet. So feel free to message us or message everyone. So if you chose other, which looks like maybe one of you did, but I'm going to ask is still be shy. Let us know what it is because it helps us understand what the landscape is out there. And we're always learning new things. All right. So that is great. So then that takes us really into our next section. So.

We've navigated the organizational horizons. We know what we need to do from an L &D team perspective. We've thought about our skill gaps. Now we really need to think about, hey, let's map the training terrain. And this is to ensure your learning and development initiatives are focused and on point. You must conduct meticulous training needs analysis. Picture this as charting the unknown territories of skill gaps and competencies.

I know that everybody knows about training needs analysis, but sometimes we don't always get to do a great job of getting that done before we start off on our sailing trip. So here are seven key coordinates to consider as those requests start hitting you next year. One, do they align with your organizational goals? Your training map should support your company's goals, ensuring that every route leads to overall success. Next is prioritization.

Is this a priority? Is this request coming in a priority? Is it going to unearth needed buried treasure or skill sets that need to be evolved in your company? And then the learning objectives. Is it well -defined where X marks the spot for each training endeavor? And then looking at a structural design and content development, what are the needs around design and development for any particular project?

Crafting your training materials is like creating a treasure map for your organization. Finally, as you look through assessment and evaluation, are you gonna track your progress? Are you gonna track the results that you're getting? Are you going to make sure that you're headed in the right direction? Or if you need to make course corrections? And finally, at the very end, once you have looked at all those other things, is how are you gonna distribute your crew and resources on this adventurous journey?

So as you chart your way through each destination, which is a learning initiative, you'll have the answers to how your team needs to be equipped to handle any type of waters you may encounter in your journey.

Okay, that takes it to me. Moving over to our strategic move number two, we're going to talk about navigating the talent needs and preaching that skill gap. As you chart your course through the ever -changing seas of professional world, it's crucial to analyze your talent needs and the chasm of skill gaps that stand before you. This step is akin to adjusting your sales and harnessing the winds of opportunity effectively.

I love this illustration as it really does show kind of what we're talking about. How do we bring our team across to with our company? As you uncover your company's training needs, you gain precious insights into how these needs ripple throughout your entire crew and your resource distribution. This phase is the compass that guides your decisions, determining whether your approach should favor outsourcing or the recruitment of fresh new crew members.

It's really a pivotal choice that shapes your overall staffing strategy. So which direction is right for your organization? We've kind of come up with eight guiding principles that we think may be helpful in helping you chart the course for the right staffing plan for your organization. First, we want you to consider the scope and the duration. How extensive is this voyage that you're on? How long is it going to take you to reach your destination?

Next, consider the specific skills and the experience necessary. What particular talents and experiences are going to be required to sail in these uncharted waters? Funding and its nature. Do you have the treasure chest, the funding necessary and in what form? Workload waves would be our next principle. Will your workload surge and recede like the tides or will it stay static?

The speed of adaptation. How swiftly can you adjust your crew size to meet the changing needs? Another important consideration is your organizational culture. What's the culture in your ship? How do you ensure harmony among all the crew members? Then taking a little bit of a longer look. What's your long -term navigation? What course will set you for the long haul? And finally, management and oversight.

How much supervision and guidance do you need along the way? In this dynamic era, having a diversified crew with specialized skills is really essential to your success in learning and development. Imagine your crew as a group of experts in the various fields. Each crew member brings a unique perspective and strength to your ship's table. Different roles bring distinctive perspectives and power.

By assembling a crew that includes instructional designers, e -learning developers, performance consultants, and so many more talents, we really enrich the projects or initiatives that our organization has set forth for us. Collaborative design and multifaceted teams are really the compass for navigating the seas of innovation. Okay, so let's take this moment to ponder this question.

No, for sure. Remember, there's no budget here. No headcount requirements. Go for the gold. What would you really love to add to your team?

Hey, give me a minute or two.

interesting. Somebody here has talked about adding on an organizational expert to really come in. I'm assuming for change management. That's often a role that we don't think about, including in our L &D structure, that change management is essential for success. Yeah, learning strategist, thanks for that. Yeah, absolutely. Learning strategist to kind of help chart those initial courses, as Teresa mentioned in that number one.

component about analysis that learning strategist team member can really help you begin to identify a blueprint for your voyage. Awesome. Thanks for sharing your ideas. If you come up with some other key positions that you'd love to see, great, specialty instructional designers for each department and a backup LMS manager, wouldn't that be dreamy to have that? see, once they get started,

Right, right, we've got a world. Then what? No, I got it. Adding to OD, get change management, DEI, team members. my goodness, absolutely so. We've had several people mention diversity and inclusion. Yeah, sadly, some of those rules that really change the culture of your organization are the hardest to get funded, to bring into the organization to help us lead to that success.

All right, Teresa, I'm going to turn it over to you to take it on our voyage for the third step. Yep. Okay. So this third strategic move to pinpoint both short and long -term staffing requirements is cultivating a crew that sales in harmony and sparks innovation. So I want you to think bigger than your own team. And this is the topic that we have seen come up more and more and more as we are placing people. So it's one of my favorites.

So in your nautical journey through the professional seas, culture fit is like the wind in your sails. It propels you forward, ensuring individuals integrate seamlessly into your ship's crew. It's more than just finding the right person to fit in. It's about forging a united crew that sails in harmony with your core values and your missions. So let's plunge into the heart of the matter. How do you create this perfect cultural fit?

So there's really four essential factors that we've found that helps drive this. The first one is really beginning to craft a vivid profile of your perfect shipmate for your vessel. Now, you can do this anytime with somebody that you're hiring on your team, and you can also do this, which is sometimes interesting for people to think about, can be this as you're thinking about a contracting partnership.

What qualities and behaviors should define someone who thrives in your unique ship's culture? Yesterday, I heard something from one of our clients that said, hey, we want somebody who can just come in and work the way we work. So every culture and every business has their own. The next thing is thinking about soft skill. So beyond technical expertise and qualifications, pay attention to soft skills. They're really the gentle winds that steer the ship.

Things like communication and teamwork and adaptability and empathy are like stars guiding you towards cultural alignment. Next, we have harmonizing with the crew. Exploring the characteristic skills and experience that could harmonize your crew's strengths and create a positive work environment. I would also emphasize here, sometimes a little static or a little friction is good for everybody involved in the group.

Next and finally, we do not want to forget about our business partners who people are going to be working with and represent our group is the person, the individual coming in needs to collaborate with your business partners within their own working styles and preferences. Even though that chosen individual can navigate the waters and collaborate effectively with your partners, you're still gonna wanna think about what type of person,

and style does your partners really respond to. So with these strategies, you'll ignite a culture of innovation that steers your ship into new horizons. thanks, Teresa. It really is essential that we form those really great, strong partnerships with the business because we're going to need that partnership as we help with the last strategic move of the big four. Navigating change and future proofing are crewing strategies.

that as you sail through the ever -evolving waters of learning and development, you'll find yourselves in the midst of a transformation. It's inevitable. New learning theories, cutting -edge technologies, and ever -shifting preferences of our learners are really reshaping how you're going to design and deliver training. In this era, L &D is not just about what you know. It's about how quickly you can adapt and evolve. So today we're going to talk about

or ways in which you can adapt and evolve to navigate change and really future -proof your staffing strategies. The first is the art of agile staffing. To navigate the dynamic tides, embracing agile staffing is the compass that really will guide us. Agile staffing means having nimbleness to respond to the changing needs swiftly. It involves flexible sourcing talent with full -time crew members.

skilled contact contractors or dynamic combination of both. This approach enables you to really scale your crew up and down to meet the ever evolving demanding changes. Our second technique is to embrace the technological tide. It's not gonna go away. It's getting bigger and bigger every day.

Learning and development landscape is really being reshaped by emerging technology. Things like AI, VR, AR, data analytics all exist. To future proof our staffing strategies, we have to be prepared to bring up board talent that has expertise in these areas or invest in upscaling your existing crew.

Understanding the technological direction in which we're headed can really greatly influence our strategic decisions about who we staff, what our initiatives look like, how we perform better to meet the needs of the employees in today's world. So, Theresa and I are curious, what emerging technologies is your team considering adopting? We'd love for you to take just a minute and share the answers in the chat.

And if you are thinking about implementing some new technology, are there any concerns that you might have about how you're going to make that possible? So we'll give you just a moment and put into the chat. I think I always ask you for the chat. Well, that's what I am. I'm a very demanding. I don't know how you got the right AI for development. Yeah. You know, Theresa and I went to this great conference about a week and a half ago and AI was.

on the tongues of everybody who attended the conference. And the challenge that we kept hearing was companies who want to implement AI but have that challenge of how do we get artificial intelligence safely behind our firewall? How do we use AI in our learning and development to really add value without putting our company at risk? So AI is definitely a talk of the future.

What other technologies are you thinking about using today? Or maybe not today, maybe next year. Or in the next three years. Hey VR, yeah. You know, VR with manufacturing, it makes so much sense because you can keep them. If you use VR, you're going to give them the opportunity to experiment in really safe environments. But implementing VR can be challenging for companies. So.

Really thinking about how you're going to use that technology to the best effect I think is super important. All right. So we're seeing an adverse range of technologies that everybody is considering to truly highlight the dynamic future of L &D. Or it might also be making you a little bit nervous about how you're going to be able to fulfill this dynamic change in learning and development. But as we integrate these advancements, the foundation is our talent.

And that leads me to our third strategy, building a sturdy talent bridge. Sailing smoothly into the future, you have to actively monitor these trends and development in the L &D field. You have to be able to respond to your business partners when they ask why you're not using these technologies. Being ever ready to change your course when necessary. Now this may involve you upscaling your current crew, recruiting the specialist or

forging alliances with external experts. A robust talent pipeline is going to ensure that you have access to the reservoir of skilled professionals who are really ready to help step in and meet your evolving needs. This proactive approach allows you to respond swiftly to the shifting demands and emerging opportunities. And fourth, fostering that culture of adaptation. Change is inevitable.

But making change comfortable for people is essential. Beyond tools and technology, it really is about nurturing a culture of innovation and adaptability within your own structure, as well as with your learners in your entire organization. So encouraging your crew to welcome new ideas and approaches is fundamental to future -proofing your staffing strategy. Now, as you set a course,

harness the winds of change, adapt to the tides of innovation, and navigate towards the future where your crew thrives and your mission succeeds.

Theresa, take it from here. Yeah, absolutely. So that was a lot. Those four strategies was a lot to take in. Good news, you're going to get the recording of this so you can go back over it later. So we've charted our course through the intricate waters of staffing solutions for L &D. We've got four big strategies securely tucked away in your curious knowledge chest. And these are your guiding stars, your compass points as you steer towards making insightful and impactful staffing choices.

Now let's pivot from theory to practice. We're going to showcase a few of our clients. These organizations leverage TTC staffing expertise to conduct deep skill analysis, achieve harmonious team compositions, foster culture fit and ignite innovation and future -proof staffing approaches.

So as we look at three different client stories, these clients are in three different industries. So we wanted to have a variety. One is financial, the other is pharmaceutical, and then one is e -commerce. So let's get started with the financial. Debbie, I'm gonna let you talk about our financial client and then I'll take it to the next one. I would love to since 2003, so 20 years.

TTC Innovations has been helping this financial giant navigate through tumultuous waters and the ever -changing winds of learning and development. The challenges that this particular organization faces is regular capacity need challenges, really across the board in all of their L &D roles. The problem is this organization is so large, the needs of their employees are incredibly high as well.

So in order to really find a path to meet the needs, they really need to focus on how do we address capacity. The second challenge that they have is really skill specific. Tools, roles, expertise, and deep institutional knowledge is essential for them. And it's a challenge that they face all the time because there's an ever evolving learner audience change happening within this organization. So some of the strategies that we helped

them implement to solve some of these challenges or to provide them with teams that complete the end -to -end project initiatives, our project -based services. It allows us to really step in and take over during an initiative to add that level of support that allows the internal learning team to focus in on continuing the conversations with the business partners, knowing that they have this entire fleet of crew members.

executing on the needs of the initiative. The additional strategy that we provide for this particular client is the individual contractors that help them fill in team gaps, skillset challenges. We use our innovators on demand, which is our industry title for staff augmentation. We use innovators to really help fill out the team of this financial organization to help them continue to be agile with their training.

So now let's take a look at a pharmaceutical client that we've been working with for the past three years. All right. So this one, I have to tell the story on this one because it's such a great story. So we met this client at an L &D conference when their director of learning who we did not know probably sat down at our table and warned us that she needed our services. And three years later, we have a beautiful and harmonious relationship.

that evolves as their organization evolves. And it has evolved in the last three years. So their challenges, although their challenges have not really changed, the way they like to address them has changed, but their challenges were, again, regular capacity needs. The way that they like to work is really being able to place people in design or development projects. So one person here, one person there.

So we created a pool of design and development talent. So as they needed them, these folks in the pool have experience with them. They know how they like to work. They know what they love to do. And they can easily come be assigned to a project or an initiative out of that pool. And then that pool is regularly available to them. Sometimes they're using a lot out of the pool and sometimes they're using a little bit, just depending on where they are in their needs.

The other thing that this client needed was, again, and I think you'll find this to be similar in most of our clients, is that specialized skills, those what tool, but they needed experts to work with the tools that they had internally. And then because they are a pharmaceutical, there are some areas in which they needed that role expertise. Somebody had experience in the medical and pharmaceutical industry.

So we've provided the talent in several different areas from a specialized. We've gone from specialized roles in L &D such as learning experience architects. We've handled experiences specific learning technologies. And then again, referring back to what I just said about just the industry and self -experience. Occasionally this client does do really large initiatives and at that point we give them a full L &D team.

to support from end to end. So again, this looks a little bit different than our financial team, which is what we're wanting to show you to give you some ideas of how this might work and how you can think about it for your own team. But what we have found in doing what we do is each organization or company really comes up with their own way of doing things. And the beauty of it is you want to find a partner that's able to do that with you. They're not bringing their...

flow their processes to the table. They're integrating with your team in the way that you guys do business today. All right, lastly, we've got an e -commerce client who we've worked with for six years. Debbie, I'm gonna let you talk about this one. Hi, yeah, I love this. One of the world's most innovative companies, our e -commerce client, is consistently pushing the landscape and the boundaries of what is possible as an organization.

which makes learning and development challenges a little unique and multifaceted for this particular company. So ensuring that they have a, that their vast and diverse workforce is not only up to date with current technologies, but is also prepared for what's on the horizon because change is a regular part of the culture of this particular client. So some of the challenges that the LND team faces at this particular organization is ensuring that

their diverse workforce has, current technologies has the ability to function in a changing environment. Safety is also a need and being able to do training at the moment of need is essential. And while these initiatives are all happening, they need the client, the client also has to focus in on evolving changes,

and updating to existing programs. So maintenance of existing content is also hugely important. So some of the strategies that we've helped them with is providing them with a team to complete their end -to -end project initiatives. Every time they roll out a new opportunity, they reach out and we provide a project team that can help them build that. But one of the most important solutions that we've introduced to this client is our new subscription learning service.

The strategy behind this service allows this client to pivot and shift its evolving priorities without the burden of re -contracting or re -scoping their work. So it's been hugely successful when you're working with a client that change is really their culture. The ability for the learning and development organization to pivot and change at on time is essential.

So casting a guide and light on the vast ocean of learning, we aim to be a steadfast compass for our clients. So we just wanted to share with you just a few of the comments from our clients about the services that we provide. Our goal really is to help our clients navigate the tumultuous waters of the evolving learners. So Theresa, do you want to give us a little bit of a recap on what we've covered today? I know it's really tough.

been a tremendous amount of information that we have shared. So do you want to jump in? Absolutely. So before we dive into some practical freebies, which I'm sure you're all excited about, I do want to go over just the high level blueprint again to make sure that the makeup of your crew and choosing the right staffing partners and getting moving on a strategy is.

is embedded with you as you move away from this particular session. So the first one is charting the course for the future. This is your blueprint. So as you gaze towards the horizon, consider this your golden opportunity to ignite the stage. Your future self will be eternally grateful for seizing this moment. The next is cultural harmony, which is really your superpower these days. Don't merely aim to hire, aim to harmonize. Elevate a cultural fit.

is your ultimate superpower, capable of propelling team dynamics to cosmic heights and launching your organization into a whole new galaxy. Next is navigating talent waters. Dive deep into the intricate web of your talent needs and skill gaps. This is for your team guys. Remember, you're not just filling roles, you're assembling your league of extraordinary innovators. Love that. Remember that, league of extraordinary innovators. I love it too.

Align your staffing choices with the ever evolving tapestry of L &D, take aim, fire, and hit the bullseye. And lastly, staying agile. Fasten your seatbelt for the journey through the kaleidoscope of learning and development because it will continue to rock and roll us. Your motto, be agile, be nimble. Navigate the L &D whirlwinds for masters of change, always two steps ahead of the storm. So by weaving these critical lessons into your plan,

perfect culture fit. The second is our Signature Innovators on Demand model, aka staff augmentation. So let's say that you want me to supplement your team with a specific role or roles for a limited time or even for just a certain time period, certain project. You can bolster your learning team with specialized individual contributors that are vetted and experienced in the corporate world from our network.

As a trusted partner, we take the time to learn your challenges, as you can see from the examples we provided, and your business so that we can then apply the right minds to the right problem. And lastly, I'm so excited to share our most recently launched service, Subscription Learning Services. This equips your team with even more flexibility to meet a diversity of clients.

This groundbreaking service was designed to meet the specific needs of one of our clients who was vocalizing the needs to be more flexible in the evolving training and talent.

Okay, and as those questions keep coming in, I'm going to give you a quick snapshot of subscription learning services. It really is the first of its kind. So many of the learning leaders we've talked to are intrigued as much as they are thrilled because it really levels the playing field. It provides access to quality learning content for all businesses, regardless of the stage of their growth. No matter which of the three subscription plans your company chooses, all plans include

unlimited requests, unlimited revisions, and source files. And all the work falls underneath the subscription learning services is completed by that top 2 % of learning and development talent. So you can be confident in reliable work and the budget spent. Yeah, and I think my favorite part right now about this is our current promotion to get started with learning services with our subscription learning services. And that is all new clients get one rate free.

Love that. Try this out, say you like it. So there's going to be a QR code that comes up on the next slide to schedule a consultation with me to get started. This gives you the best opportunity to hear more about your needs and match you with the plan that works best for your learning organization. Alright, the spotlight is now on you. It's time to embark on our Q &A journey. But before you fire away with your burning questions, here's your little treat to show our appreciation.

Not yet. I'm going to teach. We're going to show our appreciation for your insatiable curiosity and active participation. It's me just stay till the end. You've got thrilling freebies in our treasure test and we'll let you know in just a minute how to claim them after the Q &A. So without further ado, let's dive into questions. Okay. Well, thank you. All right. So this one I know is always popular. It came in. What strategies would you recommend for

programs where they want to use these services, but they have a very tight.

That's always our favorite and the one I hear all the time, all the time. You know, I think they're, and I'll answer from my perspective. you know me, I'll be happy to weigh in later. Yes. Cause you know, we're always a good combo here. So, you know, everybody has, has tight budgets. LND is not, you know, a resale or a, what are we funded? Always getting top of the budget. It's not a revenue generating.

Part of the business. So of course, you know, the funds are always tight. I've worked there I know that but I think for everything I think the one thing that we do with our clients is try to work with what it what do they got what where can they best use or their the budget that they have That may not always be doing something with us We may be able to give them some ideas or some other things they can do themselves or things they haven't thought about Because there is lots of opportunity in today's world and some of that

has to do with the technologies that are in place now, but it also has to do with some of the technologies we've had in place for a while that we just haven't utilized in a way that becomes very budget -friendly for folks. So I don't think there's a magic wand to wave on this. It's working where you are with what you have. But I will tell you a secret. And this is not an overnight secret. The.

The better you can look at and show the results you get in performance for the company overall, and you get closer and become that partner with your executive teams, the more apt they're gonna be to give you more money because you're showing your value and your worth. Call it ROI, value, whatever you wanna call it. Just working on that little piece from year to year will help get you a little bit more further into what funds they're willing to give. Debbie.

Well, and I do think that it's really important to keep your mind on what it is you're trying to accomplish. I mean, budget budgets just a reality. And although we put it as a poll question to pretend that budgets were unlimited, that's just not not fair in today's world. So trying to figure out where where are you going to get the best bang for the bucks that you do have? Is it bringing in an ad?

an innovator or a vendor who can help you to define a new learning solution that you can then deploy across your entire organization. Then you have the one spend, a short amount of spend, and then you're able to replicate that information and enhance the deployment of that information. But I also think here's the other thing. If you don't ask for more, you're never going to get more budget. So we think it's really important for learning and development professionals.

to make themselves heard. You need to be able to really define what it is that you are bringing to the table. And using words like return on investment are tough for non -learning and development professionals to truly understand. So being able to deliver things such as cost companies that implement custom learning solutions, find themselves having a 50 % higher revenue.

employee, those are facts. Pull together those facts and use them as part of your proposal to demand more of the budget for your organization or from your organization. That's my tip. Demand. I like it. I think we have to. Debbie has some of those lovely data points. I do. Keep them in my back pocket. We are happy to share. I've just gotten talking about this at a conference, so definitely. All right.

Jenny, what else do we got? All right. So this one came up a little bit, but if you could expand on, you know, those organizations you'll want to implement emerging technologies like AI, VR, AR, you know, the learning leader might be excited to try it out, but what if, you know, they're not getting support? Like how can people get support with some advice for people who want to explore those things, but aren't getting a lot of backup? Yeah, I'll start with this one.

Here's the thing, emerging technologies can be that shining object, right? And what they can do for you is they can be a hook to get a little bit more budget because I think that our organizational leaders, they want to see that emerging technology as well because they want to be the company that's not back in the dark ages. So utilizing it...

carrying an initiative where you can implement successfully this new technology can be a way to get a few extra dollars set aside for your organization. But you also need to recognize when's the right place to use that new technology because I would say this, that VR has great opportunities, AR has great opportunities, and AI, I think we're just beginning to explore how it's going to be useful for learning and development.

So make sure that whatever initiative you choose to focus this emerging technology on, that you can make it have a huge impact right away. Think through how this technology is going to make a difference for the employees in your organization so that you can have a story to tell your leaders if you're trying to implement this technology. Yeah, and I'll just add to that just a little bit. This is where...

you know, partners, staffing partners, L &D partners can really help you. You don't have to know it all. You don't have to have the people on your team who know how to make it work. This is where you go out and you find some people who can help you with that until your team comes up to speak. And you can use them as a combination. So I think sometimes people get scared about, my gosh, I don't know enough. And again,

The world is moving so fast, none of us know enough about any one thing and we have to surround ourselves with people who do and use them for the talents they bring to the table. Yeah, I agree. I think that that's really, I think that's essential. I mean, you build your bench so that you can then utilize technology in the most effective manner. And it can be scary that, you know, the technology is changing so quickly. It's hard to be an expert in it.

I mean, the way that we built VR solutions even a year ago are different than the way we build VR solutions for our clients today. I mean, the technology is just evolving so quickly. And really, a lot of things that we can do with the new technology are so much easier to implement now than they used to be.

All right. So this one came in and I think in this disruptive climate we have, it could be valid on different fronts. They're wondering how to keep, like if they were to invest in something like your services, if their learning partner, if there's some hiccup, is there continuity? Like how can, if there's change in staffing? That, you know, and that is such a wise question, really. And I don't, they're thinking about the longterm, what happens. So,

As you are starting to work with someone like TTC or some other partner, when you first start getting to know and working with your new partners, there is a learning stage that happens. I can only speak for us. We try to eliminate as much of that as we can by doing a lot of upfront work. So we get to know the client very well and who we send in is very versed.

There are times, and it doesn't happen very often for us, that what we think we heard was the need. Once they got in and they kind of saw somebody working at it, the client realized, hey, you know what? This isn't actually what we need. We actually need something else. And so in those situations, the way that we handle that is just move them into the right type of resource that they need or the right type of

integration that they need with us. So we do that. We stay with our clients until things are settled, but we do have some times that it may not work just because things change and we shift with them. I think that that's one of the beautiful things about our subscription learning service is it gives us that ability to shift and change because it happens every month, every day, every week. And that's just our newborn. So you've got to have somebody who's going to be flexible with you.

and is going to say, hey, okay, sorry that didn't work. Hey, your plan changed, we get it. Let's work now with what you got. And you know, Teresa, I think that that is a highlight of one of the innovators on demand or staff augmentation opportunities that really can help our clients because it sure is a lot easier to change out a consultant.

whose skills need to evolve and change, or if your need changes, we can plug in a different consultant who has the new needs versus if you've just hired somebody. I mean, the opportunities are endless when you're working with a firm like TTC Innovations because we have a pool of network of talent that can be moved in to an initiative as the needs change. If you...

when you hire somebody, it's not quite so easy to make that flex and change. There's always the opportunity and we strongly encourage that you help build your team's bench and give your team's bench the opportunity to learn and grow because they're like every other employee in your organization, they need training and support so that they can stay relevant. But those consultants can really fill your bench out dramatically.

and allow you to pivot and change as you need. And give you room and give you the time. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. So flexibility. Yep. Okay. Let's see here. What are some key indicators that it's time for an organization to reevaluate its staffing strategy in the L and D realm? Well, they wake up tomorrow.

And they realize the world has changed yet again. that it's honestly a great question. It is something that I think we have to think about really all the time. I mean, strategy in learning and development is ever evolving. So I think it's something that you can't set one course and say, by heavens, we're going to continue this way regardless of what happens because your business partners needs change at a whim.

or things happen, the economy shifts, or we've got something else going on that was completely COVID through the world for a dramatic change. So you can't predict those things. So I think the real question is, how do you keep your learning and development organization aware of the fact that they have to be willing to pivot and change on a regular basis? It makes it tough because,

There are some personality types, not me. I love change. I absolutely, you throw me a curve ball and I love that. I have other team members in our organization that let's plan. Let's, let's make the decisions from the sideline. Let's not do it in the huddle. I'm in a huddle kind of girl, you know, I see the lineup and I'm going to make a change. But I think that your team, if you've got people from different experiences,

different personality types. I think it adds value, but anybody who's not willing to change is going to struggle in the field of L and D because it really is one of those fields that changes regularly. Now, Teresa, tell your side of the story because you're not quite the change girl that I am. Well, you know, I used to be and now, now that I'm older, the planning piece does sound tractor to me. But I think to the point,

You know, as you're thinking things, having a partner that's out there waiting for you when you need them is critical these days. You can't wait till you have a need and then to try to go find a staffing partner or L and D partner. It just takes too long. There's too many variables. You don't know them. And so building those relationships early is good. You may not have anything right this minute, but at least you have people on standby. So if you need to change.

You've got to go to. so for me, that's the perfect thing is like, if I have my go to that, it really doesn't matter what happens because I have an option. Yeah. That's a really great point. It is planning ahead for change, which is that the perfect balance. So it's you and me together planning ahead for change. Yep. Absolutely. Okay. Well, I know you had some freebies you wanted to get them set. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Let's do freebies. Yay. Okay.

That should be just as putting the link into the chat so you can stagger it here. Jenny will be sending it with the follow -up email as well. So if you don't get it, you'll be getting it through email as well. I think it's gonna be great for you to use and you're gonna enjoy it. So that is our gift. Use it wisely. Thank you. All right, finally.

Thanks so much for joining us this week. If you'd like to know more about how partnering with TTC innovations can help your business grow, we'll have a link for Teresa's calendar in the description. Remember to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and I'll see you next time.