At the Hub Events, we deliver a wealth of face-to-face and online courses for individuals, teams and businesses. A powerful part of what we deliver is joining you in your organisation to deliver in-house training tailored to your business. In-house training is a brilliant way to support your staff’s professional development through customised training courses that fit perfectly with both your learning & development plans and your business strategy.
As well as delivering valuable practical skills and development, these courses also offer a forum for stronger internal communication and collaboration in your organisation. Your teams will get training that aligns with your company’s goals and values. Most importantly, you can tailor your training to help you overcome the specific challenges your people are facing. And what’s more, you’ll see an immediate impact.
A lot of work goes in behind the scenes to make in-house training work perfectly for each organisation and sector we work with. We spoke to one of our Hub Events all-star trainers, James Perryman, to get his take on the perfect in-house setup. Here’s how we work closely with you to plan training that delivers real results for you and your teams.
Tell us what you need
The first port of call is to chat to one of The Hub Events team and tell us what you need. Let us know your plans, objectives and any gaps and challenges you’re facing and why you’re looking for an in-house training solution. We can help guide you to the right course and the right trainer to deliver it. We’ll have some honest and open conversations right from the off to make sure not only that we can find a course for you, but that it will deliver exactly what you need.
“It's almost like they do the triage, if you imagine going into a doctor's surgery.”
James
We work closely with the trainers at this point to get their expert opinion. We inform them of your needs so that they can take the booking forward and do their research, prep and planning all around your organisation and gather insights into how you work together. At this stage, they will start to refine the course content and style to suit your objectives. They’ll even learn your organisation’s specific terminologies, common language or phrases. It’s all about making the experience as seamless, familiar and effective as possible. We work together to create the best possible training environment, as James explains:.
“I think it's important to have that positioning. And our experience working across a large range of sectors gives me some insight into the type of people I might have in the room. If it's an engineering business, I'm likely to have more introverts in the room. If it's a fashion business, I'm likely to have more extroverts in the room. It starts to give me a lens of who I'm dealing with at a business level and an individual level.”
Training, learning & development, but better?
An in-house course is all about your needs. Our open courses are available as in-house options and they work really well. If there’s a course especially suited to you, we’ll recommend it. If we think there’s a course better suited to the challenges you’re facing, we’ll be honest with you. As James says,
“There have been times when a client has said to me, ‘We want to book Dealing with Difficult People and Challenging Behaviour at Work. I've spoken to them, understood what they need, and said, ‘Actually, I think you need the Courageous Conversations course. It's not that you've got problems to overcome. You're trying to give your people courage for change that's coming up. It's a subtle difference.”
What’s special about in-house is that we can get really specific on the course content based on the things your delegates really need help with. Your trainer will come to the venue you choose, at a time you need and build the day around how you want it to run. We can make adjustments for any other variables that need attention. Whether it’s preferred start or finish times, or the number and length of breaks on the day. In-house training gives you a level of customisation and flexibility that you don’t get elsewhere.
“I'm bringing the content, tools, knowledge and resources for the course, but I'm always respectful that I'm coming into their space.”
James
Your trainer will make the content as formal or as casual as it demands. People’s styles of learning vary from business to business, from sector to sector and importantly between individuals too. What’s more, tailoring training to suit your needs means our expert trainers can be more creative with the content, since you have a room of people with something in common. Many might know each other very well. Teams will form and bond - it’s a real opportunity for organisational culture as well as skills and development.
Tailoring the course to you: In-house training at Haskoning
James recently delivered two in-house training courses for Haskoning, an engineering company with global reach. Haskoning’s team of Personal and Executive Assistants attended Dealing with Difficult People and Challenging Behaviour at Work and How to Communicate with Impact. By working closely with the Haskoning team, James was able to tailor the course content to really address what's needed and meet the challenges faced by their PA & EA teams.
As PAs, the teams are dealing with a whole raft of stakeholders who can have varied, urgent and sometimes complex requirements. One of the key foundations of the training was gaining a real understanding of the issues these stakeholders are facing and why these people might be facing challenging circumstances.
This meant training that would arm the team with the right tools and skills to manage those relationships. James explains how understanding the live problems facing the PA & EA teams enabled us to tailor the course to really deliver impact:
“Part of what we wanted to dial up for that initial course together was the assertiveness, which wasn't necessarily the case in the off-the-shelf one. So, we called it “Assertiveness and Managing Challenging Behaviours”.”
The freedom to blend the content from our courses and inject more of our trainers’ insights is what made the difference for Haskoning. Through research and planning with James and the Haskoning team, we identified one course that could be edited to meet the team's specific needs and another that was ready to go, delivering everything they were looking for without any changes.
Claire McCarthy, PA at Haskoning, was clear that she wanted every delegate to leave the room remembering that they have an important role in the business. With this in mind, James was able to change not only the content of the course for them, but the tone of the day too.
“Subtly through the different activities, exercises and discussions, it gave me the ability to say, ‘Don't ever play yourself down. Don't ever feel like an impostor.’
James
Results you might not be expecting
“My initial impression was the real passion from Claire for taking herself and her peer group away from work for a day, so that they can invest in themselves. She was really passionate about that. She wanted to make that time as beneficial as possible.”
James
At The Hub Events, we really care about training that gives you the best possible impact. Your trainer will always put everything they can into making the day as beneficial for delegates as possible. It’s important to remember that the learning doesn’t stop when the course stops. James has been lucky enough to be able to deliver two courses to the team at Haskoning. He’s been able to see their learning develop over time. Claire and the team have incorporated James’ training into the regular calls they have together. It maintains a sense of accountability and commitment to learning across all the course delegates and beyond.
Often, our in-house course delegates get added value that they may not have been expecting, such as the feeling that they can be as open and honest in the room. As a community of people who already know each other and their organisation well, an in-house course provides a unique forum to share and learn from each other by taking a step back from the work you do day to day and developing together. Claire explains how this added real value to her and her teams:
“James’s strength is his ability to allow everyone to have the confidence to be honest and open. This is a unique skill with a trainer and is a breath of fresh air. He brings his humour, honesty and his true self. His depth of knowledge allows him to be naturally confident and encourages the team to fully embrace the topics. We left feeling emboldened.”
Claire
Tailored training is a great opportunity to bring your team together to learn as a whole. It enables you to reinforce your organisation’s vision and values, as well as providing the solution for targeted and valuable learning.
At The Hub Events, we’ve been helping our clients close performance gaps and develop new skills for management, leadership and personal development for over a decade and a half. We listen to your needs, and we focus on delivering value-for-money training that drives real, sustained change. With a wealth of expert trainers and 5-star rated courses, we’re sure to have a trainer and an industry-leading course that will be a great fit for your organisation. Find out more by getting in touch with our team here.