At What Cost?

We all know we have to train our employees in responsible alcohol sales and service and food safety practices.  It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s often legally required, whether by state, county, or local regulations.  So how do we get quality compliance training without breaking the bank? What is “TCT” anyways? It’s your TOTAL Cost of Training. TCT includes fixed costs, like course registration price.  These are usually up-front numbers that can be agreed upon. TCT also includes hidden costs. What are those, you ask? Remember the tried-and-true adage “Time Is Money?” That couldn’t be more true. 

Hidden Costs

Let’s walk through this scenario with an employee: You purchase online courses that take 2 hours to complete. You pay the employee for those two hours, and you pay a replacement employee to cover the trainee’s shift for 2 hours.  During the training, the employee logs off and can’t remember their username and password to log back in. The employee calls support and spends 10 minutes on the phone before they get in again. An hour into the training, the online course freezes.  Another call is placed to support, and another 20 minutes is spent trying to “fix” a broken course. The employee finally makes it through the training, and fails the exam. (It can happen.) The employee re-takes the exam and passes. Great! Is it? How much did you spend on training ONE employee?  Multiply that by one thousand employees, and you’ve got a problem.

Let’s Look at the Math

Questions to Ask to LOWER Your TCT

If you want to lower your TCT, you’ve got to consider the entire provider experience. 

1. Is the course content regulatory-compliant, or is it outdated?
2. Does the final exam test what was actually taught, or is the employee going to fail?  
3. Does the training software work seamlessly, or does it constantly freeze and break?
4. Is it easy to log in, or are there tricky password restrictions and lock-out rules?
5. Is it helpful and pleasant to call customer support, or is it infuriating to even get someone on the phone to help?
6. Are employee reports and certificates available self-service? 
7. Are the training providers experts in Alcohol Seller/Server and Food Safety regulations?
8. Can the provider help you reduce risk and maintain compliance?

If you don’t like the answer to any one of these questions, it’s time to choose a new training provider.

Conclusion

Once you factor in the hidden cost of time spent dealing with things like sub-standard content and exams, broken programs, and ineffective customer support, your TCT could be FIVE TIMES what you originally paid.  A training program you bought for $15K might actually be costing you $75K! That’s not worth it, especially when there are alternatives out there - training providers who really can help save your money while providing a state-of-the-art experience - so you can protect and grow your business.

Click here to download our eBook “Challenges & Opportunities: Regulatory Compliance Training in the Food & Beverage Industry” to deepen your knowledge about the array of risks, challenges, and consequences - and let us help you create training, tools, and an action plan to mitigate any danger to your business!