Hello,

I am working on a new learning and dev plan for an emerging technology company. My greatest challenge currently is how to design learning in a billable environment. Does anyone have suggestions for:
- companies to contact
- papers/journals/texts to read
- other resources?

Thank you in advance for your assistance!!

IF what you are looking for is development of managers, a 360 feedback will be able to target the development needs. Then the the online learning part is available in SkillBuilder. Everything is online. Goto www.kestlydevelopment.com - then "assessments" and look for CheckPoint 360 and SkillBuilder. Sample reports, etc. are there.

I'm not sure how to answer your question. Some of the major consulting companies develop learning in a billable environment. When I was with American Management Systems (currently CGI-AMS) we billed for our time to develop all learning. Our contracts were negotiated based on specific metrics for delivery method (WBT, CBT, ILT, blended solution etc), and number of hours of the final product.

Thanks for your response - I should clarify the question. :-)

I'm working on a learning and development solution for the company I work for, which is involved in developing web solutions. All of the technical people and the managers who work on the various projects have to keep track of the hours that they work in order to bill them to the client. This presents a great challenge for their learning and development as we can't pull them off the job for a couple of days as they're working under tight deadlines, and for budget reasons as well (i.e., we can't bill the client if they're not working on the project). Sooooo, what I'm looking for are examples of solutions to similar challenges. Thanks so much for your feedback.

I feel your pain...I work in a billable environment also. Getting the time for training is my biggest struggle. There are several things we have done to work with this situation. We had to prove to senior management the need/impact of providing training for our associates and how it will in turn improve the bottom line. We also provide a lot of training before and after work and during the lunch hour. If people are truly motivated to learn, they will be willing to give up some of their personal time. I wish I had the ultimate answer, but we are still trying to figure it out also.