We are looking to expand our training department and need to know what the industry standard ratio is for a trainer to be in the classroom vs. in the office.

Does anyone know where I can find this information?

Kimmie -

That's a tough question.  Many factors play into an answer here:

1) Are your trainers developing and designing material?

If they are, then office time is critical to put together quality products.  At the Bob Pike Group we say that if you are designing in a participant-centered way that you should dedicate 5-10 hours of design time for every hour of planned instruction (this does not include time needed for layout and graphic design work).  If you also have someone doing graphic design for you to put together participant and leader's guides, then you can take that into your calculations.

2) Are your trainers delivering the same content each time?

With repetition comes practice and polish.  The more your trainers are delivering similar material, the less time they will need to prep for a course and will thus be able to take on other duties.  If the content is new each time, then preparation time can dramatically go up.

3) What sort of collaborative environment are you looking to create with your trainers?

The more time that trainers are on the road, the less time there is to collaborate as a team and to create collectively.  Also, coordinating schedules can be tough too to get everyone in the office at the same time.  At the Bob Pike Group, our Training Consultants travel between 20% and 60% each month, depending on need.  Knowing these time commitments as a trainer is critical because there is definitely a lifestyle that comes with traveling so much.  As long as the expectations are clear, you can be better set to not brun out your trainers doing work that they did not "sign up for".

This is at least a start to this conversation.  I hope that his is helpful.

--Scott Enebo

Training Consultant

The Bob Pike Group