I manage a Sales Training team with a staff of 5 people (me, 2 trainers, 1 content specialist, 1 admin) and we are responsible for training a global sales team of 650 (450 field, 250 inside, 50 other). Learning Paths consist of new role bootcamp and then continuing education in the form of weekly product/system updates, web training, some eLearning, and conferences. We also offer instructor led sales and business skills classes primarily led by my team.

I feel that we are under staffed and would like to better understand recommended ratios of trainers to personnel before asking for additional resources. Is there an ideal ratio of training to employees and what are the recommendations for roles to support a global sales team? There is alot of advice out there on class size but I haven't found anything on training resources overall.

It is difficult to identify whether you are suitably resourced without knowing the detail of expected learning requirements.

Rather than looking for a ratio of trainers to employees, I think you should be looking at training needs to ability to fulfill.

The starting point is required objectives of the business followed by objectives of the training team and from that you can identify if you are suitably resourced to meet the demands.

Another simple test could be if you are failing to meet your requirements now.

I agree with Bubble...it depends on what is expected of the training department and of each training role.

However, Clint, anyway you look at it, I'd give anything for the amount of resources you currently have. I'm a one man band with 650 employees and no plans to add any training resources despite my proposals.

Have you benchmarked your team against ASTD's 2008 State of the Industry data?

Thanks, all, for your comments. I agree that this is a subjective question with many possible answers. The goals are pretty simple: Provide the necessary and relevant training for all systems and products BEFORE they release as well provide meaningful sales skills training at a time appropriate to their exeperience and needs.

I feel like we do a pretty good job with the Sales Skills but I don't feel like we are meeting the necessary bar for Systems and Products. This is why I thought I would look for recommended ratios.

I did try to look at the State of the Industry but found mostly salary, number of hours, etc. I'll keep digging and hopefully turn something up. I did have a local ASTD board member give me guidance at 2% in terms of training personnel to employees. This is, of course, a general recommendation and would need to be tweaked but it was helpful.

Thanks for your time and recommendations.