We are looking to add a corporate trainer in Q2. We will most likely hire from within. 70% of our folks are located at our headquarters, but we are hiring more and more remote folks. I want to select the best person, not just the best person in Atlanta. Does anyone have a corporate trainer who is not located at their headquarters? What are some advantages and disadvantages you see?

food for thought --

There are extremely successful globally giant companies that operate with people all over the world.
People are successfully getting their BS, MS and even PhDs on the internet without stepping foot in a classroom.
Companies have full-scale learning initiatives that never involved shipping anybody to one location.

Why, then, would an employee *have* to be housed in any particular location? With the exception of particularly sensitive, confidential types of work, there's no reason why someone couldn't work remotely. The key is identifying the competencies needed to help ensure that someone will be a good fit for remote work. Some people just aren't cut out for it. I think most, when given the opportunity to work remotely and provided with the proper tools to do so, will go above and beyond expectations.

I like them based at corporate or at least another office with a large number of employees. Reason being. Trainers - for the most part-- are HR people and not operations people. Having them do operations training remotely makes little sense. I use them to deliver company-wide, corporate-led training. To me it doesn't make sense basing them remotely as then they might not get the feel for what corporate is trying to have them instill.

It depends on several factors:

1. What kind of training will they be delivering? Is it something being developed at HQ (new product, etc)? Is it general product training for new hires? Is it sales training? You didn't specify...

2. How many other trainers do you currently have?

3. What kind of infrastructure does your company have for remote employees? Do you currently use WebEx or similar tools on a regular basis?

In any case, both can be successful. If the trainer is only delivering training and not doing the curriculum development/instructional design, then remote would probably be okay. If the trainer is developing curriculum for new products, etc, then being at HQ might be an advantage.

quote:

Trainers - for the most part-- are HR people and not operations people.

How is this relevant, even if it were true?