When budgets are tight, training is the area where traditionally, businesses look for cost savings. However, in the longer term, the cost of not investing in training can be much higher than the immediate savings you make.
Poorly handled complaints, inconsistent tenancy management, or a missed compliance update can quickly negate any savings made elsewhere.
The Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) is starting to deliver real results for Australians. It’s fantastic to see the community housing sector leading the charge.
However, to truly deliver quality housing outcomes, we need an upskilled, professional workforce behind every tenancy. The challenge isn’t whether to train your people. It’s how to be smarter about it.
Here are a few practical suggestions to help you stretch your training budget further.
Reuse what you already have
Most organisations already have materials sitting quietly on a shared drive. Before commissioning something new, review what’s there and refresh it. Updating examples, adding current legislation or reframing content around today’s priorities. Big Picture can easily work our magic and turn a dusty old PowerPoint presentation into an eLearning for you.
Bring the trainer to you
In-house delivery usually works out to be more cost effective than sending multiple people on a public training course. When brought in-house, one session can reach a whole team for what it would cost to send just a few staff on a public course. It’s also a great way to align learning to specific challenges and culture, rather than relying on generic case studies.
Blend it
Short online modules followed by focused, practical team sessions are both cost-effective and time-efficient. We’ve seen organisations save 30–40% on training simply by flipping part of their program online and using live time for application and facilitated discussion. We can offer any of our training programs as blended learning with bite sized lunch and learns or bite sized sessions facilitated online during a team meeting, supported by an eLearning to embed the learning into the long-term memory.
Talking about “lunch and learns”
Not every learning opportunity needs to be a half-day event. A series of short, 30-minute “lunch and learn” sessions are an easy, low-cost way to keep learning alive especially across dispersed teams. They work well for sharing quick updates, reflecting on real cases, or exploring one idea from a recent workshop in more depth.
License, don’t outsource
If you’ve got capable facilitators in-house, licensing one of our tried-and-tested programs can save thousands over time. It gives you the freedom to deliver as often as you need, adapt examples to your audience, and keep the expertise within your organisation.
If you have a Learning Management System (LMS)
Maximise the potential of your LMS. We have a full catalogue of sector specific behavioural and technical eLearning available for licence that you can upload to your learning management system.
If you don’t have an LMS
Consider subscribing to the Big Picture Training Academy. Your one stop shop for housing related training. A purpose-built, cost effective, housing specific, online learning hub. Offering full access to compliance, behavioural and technical eLearning content with resources and scenarios crafted for social and community housing… all hosted and managed for you!
Collaborate with others
Pooling training with neighbouring housing providers or partners in your region can be a simple win. Shared sessions cut costs, broaden perspectives, and strengthen relationships across the sector. Something we can all benefit from.
Focus on impact, not hours
One well-designed session that genuinely shifts behaviour is worth ten tick-box completions. When asking us to deliver training for you, be careful to articulate the problems or behaviours you need the training to resolve. Once you’ve identified the behaviours you’re attempting to shift, consider how you’re going to embed the learning. Then track how the training program has #madeadifference to evidence your return on investment.
The takeaway
Training doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective. It just needs to be intentional, practical, and embedded into everyday work. When budgets are tight, it’s not about doing less learning, it’s about doing more with the resources you have.
Contact us to start saving.