Deciding whether to buy or build your manager development program is not an easy choice. There are many factors to consider, including available resources, company needs, cost, and program delivery. But with the right approach, you can make informed decisions confidently.
Here's how we at Elevate Academy think about the build vs. buy decision.
In this article, you will learn how to use a simple yet effective decision toolkit to help you decide whether you should create or outsource manager development.
The Buy vs Build Decision Framework
"When should organizations create their own manager development programs and when should they outsource it?"
To answer this question, the framework above can help you navigate the thinking process, helping People leaders make strategic choices on the make or buy decision. This allows them to use their budget and resources wisely.
There are only two important questions we suggest asking yourself when making this critical decision.
Question 1: How unique is the learning content to your organization?
If the content you need is very specific to your industry or company that few providers have, it may be more effective to build it in-house. For example, you need to develop a program for compliance with your industry regulations or if you need to teach very specific, technical skills required as a manager.
However, suppose the training you need is universal and widely applicable, like adapting management approaches to individual needs, leading through change, driving impact, and building trust. In that case, it often is more cost-effective to buy.
Question 2: What resources do you have in-house?
Consider the availability of the following resources and how they affect your build vs buy analysis.
- Expertise. If your organization already has the necessary subject matter experts to build and deliver training, it could be more feasible to do it in-house. It's important to lean on expertise in both management best practices and learning design that will support long-term behavior change.
- Modality. What different modalities of training do you need and do you have the resources to roll them out? If you take a multi-modality approach (classroom training, online & on-demand content, coaching, etc.) do you have a team with the expertise and time to deliver?
Tip: Management development doesn't happen in the classroom alone. Ongoing reinforcements are necessary to drive behavior change.
- Frequency. How often will you deliver the training and learning activities? Will it be on-demand, or does it need to be scheduled as an event? More importantly, do you have the people and resources to make it happen?
- Content Stability. How often does your development content need to be updated? Does it need to be updated quarter over quarter, or is the content fairly stable?
- L&D resources. Your people need consistent development, support, and accountability. To create lasting behavior change, a simple one-time classroom training approach won't move the needle. Do you have a team who can manage the following:
- Clarify business needs and link training outcomes to those needs.
- Craft and track measurable learning objectives and success metrics.
- Design a multi-faceted program focusing on classroom training and consistent learning reinforcements.
- Provide ongoing coaching and accountability for people managers
Tip: It won't be entirely off-the-shelf for training content to land well within your organization. There will always be a certain amount of partnership between you and the training provider.
If you answered "Yes" to most of the questions above, you could design and deliver management development programs in-house because you readily have the resources.
Even so, with a finite number of L&D SMEs, you may want to outsource manager development programs and save their time to build and support content that is more unique to your business.
If you don't have the resources or you have prioritized other development areas, it's wise to outsource to providers like Elevate Academy.
How Elevate Academy Creates Lasting Behavior Change
Elevate Academy is the go-to company in the US for accessible, scalable, and relevant management development programs. We help people managers be the kind of manager they would want to work for.
To help each people manager thrive, we designed Elevate Academy to be:
- Engaging and interactive. Each training video is between 5 to 10 minutes and comes with actionable one-sheeters and tips.
- Effective from the get-go. Most of our People Partners can immediately see how our programs impact their people managers and teams.
- Rooted in science and expertise. Our training content may be short, but it's distilled from decades of leadership coaching, science, and research from hundreds of companies.
- Scalable to organizations of any size. Whether you run a lean team or a huge org, our platform can help develop dozens to hundreds of people managers with ease.
- Supportive from A to Z. You will work hand-in-hand with learning and organizational development specialists who have helped companies, including Google, develop world-class programs. They will support you from initial planning, to roll-out, to measuring results.
