Secure a Training Budget When You Have No Budget

Be warned... I write many of my posts on my iPhone. 

Many people encounter this issue Whether you are a one person training department or a large team. You are told to run a training department with zero budget? Can you do it? Certainly, but it's not easy unless you have internal support to help you tackle projects. 

Obtaining a budget is not impossible. Let me share some of my approaches. It requires a little research but is easy to do. Try these out:

• Research employee certifications- employee certifications are very costly. It can costs $2,000-$4,000 to send one person to a certification prep class, such as PMP. If several employees attended this seminar, you can easily justify a budget. Explore some elearning options that offer test prep classes. You'll find that the cost per user is significantly lower than the costs of live classroom courses. 
• Demonstrate Wasted Performance - It goes beyond employees knowing how to do their job. It's about doing their job effectively and knowing the proper way to do it. These individuals are spend more time on the task than necessary. Multiply theses additional hours by their hourly rate. Multiply this product by 365 (number of days in the year). That's the cost of underutilized time PER EMPLOYEE. If training can help you reduce their wasted time, you can easily create a budget from the amount of money anticipated to be saved. 
• Make a personal investment - Not everyone will agree with this approach but I believe it is very powerful. Sometimes ROI is not enough to convince management to offer more funding. I have overcome this by demonstrating my confidence in the solution. I have offered to take a portion of my salary or my bonus to pay half of the costs. I have advocated that I believe patiently in the solution that I will make the investment. Only use this approach if you're truly willing to commit. There have been times when it convinced management enough that I didn't pay s cent. I've also encountered situations where I gave up a portion of my salary in good faith. The fact is I want to show that I'm investing in the company. 
• Turnover - Everyone knows that employee turnover is a costly expense. Not only does a company lose an employee but also the investment put into this individual. Also consider the costs associated with trying to replace an employee. It adds up quickly. Review the exit interviews over the last year and see if there are any comments regarding training or lack of growth. You can figure out the overall costs of turnover to make a business case for a budget. 

These are just several methods I have used in the past. There are many other methods to use. These are just a few suggestions. Always evaluate your situation before using this approach. There is no one-size fits all.