Do businesses really not have any budget?

[outofofficeagain]

I have been self-employed for 15 years and recently changed direction, delivering corporate training (well-being and DEI-related). I've done training before, but this is a new area and new target market.

It started well, but over the last few months, I've had nothing. People either do not get back to me at all or coming back with nos.

Is it the time of year? Or is it a terrible time to be doing this?

I can go on for a bit longer but getting very scared that this was all a terrible idea and I should go back to what I was doing before.

Sorry OP I just can’t see how this would ever be classed as an essential and most companies won’t be interested. I work for a large multinational and we do have in house mental health champions who do give some training on this sort of thing but it’s all in house and they do it alongside their technical roles rather than having people only focusing on giving this training. Lots of smaller companies will be cutting their budgets and again this isn’t essential training. You need to move into an essential area for training, possibly retraining in a different area or get a job in something else.

Yes we have that as part of our mandatory training but it’s all done with online training courses rather than with an actual trainer.

Sorry to say, but I've got a couple of clients who do internal customised/tailored management/team training for some of the UK's biggest organisations, including FTSE100 companies. Both their bookings diaries have dropped off a cliff since last Summer, and they're both really worried.

As others have said, "nice to haves" like training are first to go when finances become stretched.

Even general employment law training work is reducing. It's the sort of thing businesses think they can do without.

I recently enquired about a half day training session with an external provider. Our budget for the whole team for the year is £2000 and he quoted £4500 for his session. I was shocked and it was a hard no. I guess it depends on your prices.

Half a day for £4.5k? That would be over a lot of budgets.

Is this the only training topic you can deliver?. It is quite niche and I have worked for a variety of companies and I have never seen a training on it.
Are you pitching reasons as to why this training is good for managers and business, because however important this is for humans, businesses will want a clear benefit to them too to invest. As in do you have figures to support why this training is going to help with anything?
Maybe partner with another trainer in a similar niche and create a days workshop around a broader topic for more business value.

I don't work in DEI/ wellbeing and even I know what the market is like out there for that right now, surely if your business and livelihood is based on something, you keep tabs on it...from a marketing perspective at least? Even the 'happiest place on earth' is scaling back on DEI.

Sorry OP I don't think that will fly - wrong time, too niche and as someone who has a business I do know how disappointing that is when time and money go into it. We are lucky in ours that we have a good international sales base ( mainly EU and Japan) as UK sales are erratic and I think far more businesses are struggling here - As things stand I think it's safer and better for your mental health getting a role that doesn't require you to sell in a nice but non essential service to corporates who mainly are giving a shit about their bottom line ( or share price) as things stand.
anything very niche will not even be on their radar.

I've noticed too that other industry's are struggling - there used to be a lot of 'events/exhibitions/conferences held in London/Manchester etc for international business- but due to Brexit and difficulties in being able to bring stock easily especially from EU , these are now being held elsewhere in EU - one in our industry is now held in Portugal and one in Netherlands. The UK is losing good business simply by being isolationist. It's not like the US where the whole of the US is its own EU in size with a huge internal market.

Sorry OP! I also work for a U.S. owned company we've basically been told to but a pin in anything DEI related for a while to wait for the dust to settle. Ditto to looking into being all training in house due to cost cutting measures - and we're not even financially struggling as a company right now, it's just routine.

@Crazybaby123 yes, I am pitching the benefits.

People who suffer grief, in any form, if they are treated badly by their team, or the bereavement policy doesn't support them, come back, struggle then get signed off sick, and very often leave altogether after a time. It's massively disruptive to a team and expensive for the business.

Also, unlike other DEI initiatives it can happen to anyone, without warning at any level of the business.

My target clients are companies with staff who can't easily be covered for or replaced.

But as no one here thinks it has a future, it's a tough sell.

Being really blunt about it, this would be a luxury that we couldn't afford even at the best of times. We invest quite a lot in staff wellbeing, but this would be very far down on our list of priorities.

Plus right now, the economic climate is really tough, so there is even less funding available for anything.

I make a point of employing managers with a decent level of emotional intelligence, and I would expect them to be able to provide an appropriate level of support for staff who have been bereaved, with additional support from our EAP as required. Having suffered a close bereavement recently myself, I wouldn't really want or expect any additional support from work other than flexibility around time off and a normal human response/some basic compassion and understanding. Most people would appreciate a decent amount of paid compassionate leave over and above special training in this area.

So I'm sorry, but I think you might need to start looking for another focus.

Honestly, I just don't think you need special training for that. Basically, it boils down to organisational culture. If the culture is generally flexible and supportive, people will naturally do what they can to support a bereaved colleague... and if they aren't that way inclined, I doubt that specific training is really going to fix that.

It simply hasn't been an issue in any of the places where I've worked.

I'm curious to know what form this takes. It seems an incredibly niche to start with which would mean the market is automatically very limited.

Also, if I think back to how bereavement has been dealt with in the workplace, I would say the majority of people return when they are ready and don't really want anyone to reference it, myself included.

So I am genuinely curious to know what this offering would look like.

Is it the case that it's aimed organisations who want staff back in as soon as possible with the view that if they are supported more, they can return to work faster?

I mean you just don't know how a bereavement is going to affect your staff. You don't know how anyone is going to be afterwards. So it's a massively unpredictable thing for people to deal with.

One person left our organisation after their sibling sadly died. Didn't work for a very long time. With things like parents, I would say most of us went back to work after needing a bit extra - other than the official bereavement leave which is always short - and didn't really want anything different. You use sick leave if you need more.

I do recall quite a few times that we've quietly taken work off each other, but that would be in any time of trouble, not specifically bereavement. And what you need for that is a good team, not special training.

My target clients are companies with staff who can't easily be covered for or replaced.

What companies are these? I thought no one is indispensible.

Also, maybe it is worth educating us what the company can do other than giving compassionate leave, flexibility and time off? Grief and loss is personal and I am instinctively sceptical that a company should play a bigger nanny role.

Since you are talking staff that cannot be easily replaced, I presume they tend to be senior. If so, it is not just grief and loss but also substance abuse or burnout or mental health. Do you cover those triggers as well?

"My target clients are companies with staff who can't easily be covered for or replaced"

sorry, I missed this. So it's about getting them back in faster? I don't think there's anything you can really do about that is there? I mean, a lot of people will head back into work really quickly. But I'm not convinced the company policy can help with that. I think it's more about the type of person you are.

I (indirectly) work in this field in a large global corporate. Any "discretionary" spending is a no-no at the moment...businesses are all massively feeling the pinch.

Would it be a nice to have? Of course.
Is it a necessity? No (and so we won't do it).

It is a really tough time to be selling training/consultancy services I'm afraid.

I think the topic is too rare an occurrence, the recommendations are probably just a question of common sense and flexibility in most cases, and nobody can normally sue if a grieving period is handled badly.

It's not quite the same but I have someone in my team who has been through a traumatic experience outside work in the last year, but I have just supported them in common sense ways - discussing with them when they want to but not bringing it up unless they do, allowing time off for counselling, flexibility on deadlines and workload because they sometimes have a rough patch mentally etc. I haven't had any training and doubt training would add anything.

If I was going to do anything in this sector I would offer disability discrimination training, especially focussing on neurodiversity. So many people are getting ADHD or ASD diagnoses these days and you could sell it as being cheaper than being sued. But to be honest it's a bloated sector and I wouldn't want to be doing this at the moment.

delivering corporate training

This is my dream job, tried twice, once on secondment as a permie and again on contract.

Sadly, it's the easiest thing to cut back on, without immediate impact on the business.

Sorry @outofofficeagain it might be time for a change of direction in the current economic climate.

My company is around this size and the NI increase is c.£900k. That is quite a lot of money needing to be found from somewhere. It’s sad for small businesses like you trying to find clients, and surely discourages productivity and entrepreneurial spirit.

Yes grief can be devastating, complex and complicated. But people suffering from complex grief need support from appropriate professionals - not a well meaning work colleague who has done a course.

I may be sensitive to this because I have worked in palliative care and suffered a series of personal bereavements, including traumatic deaths of close family in childhood, but it just isn't a wellbeing topic.

I'm afraid your offer would land very badly with me. I would be looking to spend any available funds I had on appropriate professional support to meet the needs of individuals.

Yes, agreed. If people need more than a decent manager/decent team can offer based on their own common sense, I would rather pay for proper professional support for the individual.

@outofofficeagain "People who suffer grief, in any form, if they are treated badly by their team, or the bereavement policy doesn't support them, come back, struggle then get signed off sick, and very often leave altogether after a time. It's massively disruptive to a team and expensive for the business."

I have never seen bereavement be massively disruptive to a team so I'm imagining incredibly high octane environments but they would also be hit badly by someone being off sick suddenly. They would already have plans in place.

you also mention people being treated badly after bereavement which i hope is rare.

beteavement policy is usually x amount of time off. I feel as if you are selling something that's not just niche but not needed tbh.

I think this sounds really good, finding businesses where staff cant easily be replaced is also good. Have you tried media businesses, I have worked in a few and they have deadines and highly skilled creative staff to contend with i could see them booking something like this