For small and medium-sized organisations, training is always a balancing act. You want quality learning outcomes, but you’re also juggling budgets, productivity, and the reality that every hour someone is in training is an hour they’re not doing their ‘day job’.
We know investing in our people’s learning needs are important, but how do we provide the best opportunities to them and their needs, that also works operationally for the business.
The good news is there’s no shortage of training options. The challenge is choosing the delivery method that genuinely fits your business, rather than defaulting to whatever feels easiest at the time.
Online training
Online training has become a go-to for many organisations, largely because it’s accessible and cost-effective. There’s no travel, no venue hire, and it’s relatively easy to fit around busy schedules. For teams spread across locations, or businesses with limited capacity to release staff for full days of training, this can be a practical solution.
That said, online training isn’t without its challenges. Engagement can drop quickly if sessions are long, generic, or poorly facilitated. People are also more likely to multitask when learning remotely, which can affect the quality of learning outcomes. Online delivery tends to work best for foundational knowledge, compliance requirements, or refresher training, particularly when it’s interactive and supported by follow-up activities.
Face-to-face training with an internal facilitator
Many businesses rely on internal leaders to deliver training, and when it’s done well, this can be incredibly effective. Internal facilitators understand the business, the people, and the real-world challenges staff face. That context can make learning more relevant and immediately applicable.
The trade-off is that not everyone who is good at their job is naturally good at teaching others. Without the right structure or facilitation skills, internal training can become inconsistent or overly informal. There’s also the time investment required to prepare and deliver sessions, which can stretch already busy leaders. When supported with clear materials and expectations, however, this approach can build internal capability and reinforce culture in a powerful way.
Face-to-face training with an external facilitator
External facilitators often bring a level of polish, structure and expertise that’s difficult to replicate internally. They’re skilled in adult learning, know how to manage group dynamics, and can introduce fresh perspectives that challenge “the way we’ve always done things”.
While this option usually comes with a higher upfront cost and requires staff to step away from the business for dedicated time, the return on investment can be significant. Face-to-face training delivered by an experienced facilitator is particularly effective for leadership development, team effectiveness, and behavioural change, where discussion, reflection and practice are critical to success. If the group undertaking the training are all internal employees, this is also a great way to build relationships within the business in a different setting that isn’t focussed on the day-to-day tasks. Alternatively, if this is a session with participants from other organisations it’s a great opportunity to grow networks or hear from other business’ perspectives that may resonate with your employees to expand their awareness and practical application.
Self-directed learning
Self-directed learning offers maximum flexibility and minimal disruption to the workday. Employees can complete learning at their own pace, making it an attractive option for time-poor environments. It can also encourage personal ownership of development, especially for motivated individuals.
The risk is that without structure or accountability, learning can quickly slide down the priority list. Completion rates and learning depth often vary widely between employees. For this reason, self-directed learning tends to work best as a supplement to other training methods rather than a standalone solution. This may include refreshers, follow up on particular topics or the completion of assessments for accredited courses.
Short courses
Short courses are designed to be practical, focused and efficient. They allow employees to build specific skills without committing to long periods away from the business. For small and medium businesses, this can be an ideal way to address immediate capability gaps while keeping disruption to a minimum. These courses are often well priced and can be delivered face to face or online.
The main limitation is depth. While short courses can deliver strong short-term gains, learning may not stick without opportunities to apply skills and reinforce them over time. When paired with on-the-job practice or coaching, however, they can be highly effective. Short courses can also come with an overwhelming amount of resources – either as pre-reading or as ‘supporting material’. This may often not be well utilised and gathers dust on the shelf, or of course, can be referred to in the future for the engaged learner.
Year-long or extended programs
Longer-term training programs represent a more significant investment, both financially and in time. They’re not always feasible for every role or organisation, but where they are used strategically, the outcomes can be substantial.
Extended programs allow learning to be embedded over time, giving participants the chance to apply concepts in real situations and reflect on their experiences. For leadership development, succession planning, or critical specialist roles, this approach often delivers the strongest and most sustainable learning outcomes.
An investment in this type of learning, shows real commitment to your employee. It may be a really useful strategy to retain a high performer, where increased salary may not viable, as well as increasing their capability and the business seeing real, sustained benefits over the longer term.
Learners may also develop and build networks with like minded participants enabling growth for the individual as well as their capabilities as an employee.
The answer?
In reality, the most effective training strategies for small and medium businesses are rarely built around a single delivery method. A blended approach is usually the most practical and impactful — using online learning for knowledge-based content, face-to-face sessions for deeper skill development, and self-directed learning to reinforce and extend capability.
Whatever the training method/ combination of methods that is used, ideally this is contained as part of an agreed Development Plan for employees. Plotting towards the end goal of skill or knowledge development, back to the identification and delivery method of a training course/ learning opportunity that is supported by on-the-job application and mentoring/ support from others in the business.
When training is aligned to real business needs, delivered in a way that respects time and budget constraints, and focused on practical application, it stops feeling like an interruption and starts becoming a genuine driver of performance and growth
Investing in our people’s learning needs is important, how we provide the best opportunities for them and their needs, that also works operationally for the business, just requires a bit of thought, focus and a plan.
