Well, you've got several options.

1. Pull people out in increments of less than 1 hour. I know--sounds ridiculous. But I know of at least two Federal contractors that do that--they have 55 minutes

2. Focus on performance and results. Thus, the ONLY training that happens is demonstrated to be relevant to the contract results and you can easily show a Level IV or Level V impact.

3. Don't train. Instead, hold problem solving meetings (no, I'm not being a sophist on this) that focus specifically on the project. Use these meetings to deal with process issues, trouble-shoot problems and do skill building that is on-point or specific to the project work. I know--it's a lot harder b/c it's all tailored or work specific--there is no generic work. Furthermore, it's not a day of training, it's a day of work (which includes some skill development, some decision-making, some planning, some process rework, etc.). But in the end, it's far more useful b/c clients who focus on billable hours are more likely to be short-term focused (how does this help me now? While I'm here in training, what work is piling up on my desk?) so anything that is specific and work-focused and emphasizes results tends to get people's focus and energy (as opposed to training which may be seen alternately as a distraction/convenience or a break).

4. Build this into the project proposal fee. I know, I know, the marketing and proposal team will insist that this will price you out of the market. The true answer is: it depends upon your market and your work. But right now, you're in a world where training won't happen (or when it does, it's continually seen as "not contributing to the bottom line." B/c it isn't billable just reinforces that reality). At the point that the work you do is billable (or seen as directly--not indirectly--contributing to the bottomline, then you won't have a big problem with this issue.

Good luck!

Thanks Joe - this is very valuable!!!

Best,
Jill

I'm going to agree with much of what Joe had to say:

If the training was specifically relevant to a project it was billed to the client in most instances. For example, if we were building a an upgrade to existing software and needed to be trained on past functionality this might qualify.

In some instances training was charged to overhead. We had other meetings that were not project specific that were also charged this way - same concept.

Finally, when we were on the bench we were expected to do some kind of learning - wbt, cbt or ilt depending on what projects were in the pipeline or what new products the company was selling.

I'll admit though - I didn't get much classroom training.

We also did brownbags over a lunch hour.

I'm in a similar situation where we can't pull folks off the floor for extended periods of time during business hours - we'll deal with it by using lunch hours, potentially using overtime, and also by combining reduced off the floor time with lunch to increase total training time. Not ideal - but I'll take what I can get!

I train in a billable enviroment. We are doing some web based training which provides flexiblity. We do some classroom training and I justify it by making sure it addresses real issue we are having. Like the person above I have to show the ROI. Most of our classroom training is half day or less. I also schedule the calendar for the year so that people know way ahead of time and can try to plan their work around it.

When I schedule training I avoid the last two weeks of end of quarter and I usually do it on Fridays because that is the least billable day for us.