As we close out of 2023’s budget, are you looking back and realizing that unanticipated chunks of spending added to your overall project expenses?
You’re not the only one.
Taking a page from our founder’s book, here’s how L&D initiatives actually helped decrease one organization’s major losses by $2.8 million.
Before Krysta Van Ranst started Building PPL in 2020, she helped reduce a 200+ employee construction management firm’s major losses by 25% in 12 months and continued reducing it for the next two years.
If you’re asking, “How does one reduce millions of dollars in company losses?”
We’re here to tell you that game-changing initiatives don’t happen overnight (which, for high D DISC personalities, not seeing immediate results can be frustrating).
Krysta was brought in as the head of learning to resolve this firm’s problem of unanticipated expenses on projects. Before Krysta joined the team, the firm was looking at $3.2 million in major losses across 40 different projects.
The root cause of these losses?
Lack of communication.
While churning out email after email might feel like you’re getting your point across, when working with a diverse range of team members working on various projects, the need for effective communication can’t be overlooked.
Now the real work begins! Krysta worked with the firm’s leadership team to lead a communications initiative focused on intentional communication – i.e. learning how to communicate so you’re not screaming into the void but tailoring your message so you’re heard by the intended audience to produce the desired outcome.
Before rolling out any programs, Krysta made sure her client’s needs were being met through:
- Vendor vetting. To ensure a best-fit L&D vendor that satisfied this firm’s specific needs, the leadership team met with 3-5 different vendors to understand their processes and how they fit with the organization’s needs and overall goals before kicking off any learning initiatives.
- Leadership pilot. Before team members started training, the leadership team “tested” the program themselves to ensure it was the right fit for their organization and that, after the training, the entire company would be on the same page.
- Follow-up feedback. After engaging in the practice training, Krysta gathered feedback from the leadership team to determine the vendor who delivered training that hit the mark on the organization’s needs.
- Sessions across teams. Now the fun part begins! Once the vendor and initiatives were selected, Krysta rolled out the program across teams and departments, careful not to disrupt workflow.
Working diligently to ensure these initiatives stuck, Krysta helped the firm enhance its culture and reduce its major losses.
Now, a few years later, our team uses the same tried and true method to help our clients find initiatives that speak to their organization’s business and team needs.
We’re not going to sugarcoat it — reducing the firm’s losses by $2.8 million in three years was not easy.
However, after training 120 employees (including new hires during the three years), the firm saw an average reduction of 50% of major losses on 90% of projects in the first year by increasing communication efficiency.
Measuring L&D’s return on investment year after year, beginning with the year before L&D initiatives started and culminating in $2.8 million saved after three years.
The firm’s initial investment into L&D not only drastically decreased its major losses but built long-term benefits like a culture shift that prioritized learning and measured the training value of L&D.
If you’re looking at your line-by-line budget and wondering what unexpected costs you can mitigate, we’d love to help!
Email us at connect@buildingppl.com to see where learning meets savings.
