HELP FOR THOSE NEEDING APPROVAL FOR TRAINING INVESTMENTS.
Introduction
ADOBE TRAINING ISN'T JUST FOR GRAPHIC ARTISTS.
Adobe training classes often appeal to professionals who may not have attended a formal design school, but find themselves using Creative Suite software products in their daily activities.
Many companies have paid for employees to learn Microsoft Office products like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as this software took hold as essential, everyday tools. In many organizations, proficiency in Adobe software is becoming a similar essential skill.
Your boss may have started asking questions about how to improve the look of internal documents, or customer-facing forms and promotional materials. With more companies relying on internal staff to help develop marketing tools and web content, it’s becoming more common for employees to stumble through familiarizing themselves with Adobe software tools such as Photoshop and InDesign. This self-study process often takes weeks or months, if it even gets done at all.
If your job doesn’t normally involve using Adobe Creative Suite, you’re in for a tougher sell. You may have to convince your boss that she’s not funding your attempt to build a side business. Show her the ways that Adobe products can reduce friction in her business, and she may find enough wiggle room in her budget to cover the cost of your Adobe training. Regardless of your job role, you can build a compelling argument for employer-sponsored Adobe training by emphasizing five crucial points.
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1. Get More Done
TACIT KNOWLEDGE IS THE KIND OF KNOWLEDGE THAT IS DIFFICULT TO TRANSFER TO ANOTHER PERSON BY MEANS OF WRITING IT DOWN OR VERBALIZING IT. EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE IS KNOWLEDGE THAT CAN BE ARTICULATED AND READILY TRANSMITTED TO OTHERS.
According to University of Houston Clear Lake professor Elizabeth A. Smith (Smith, 2001), the most productive professionals blend both tacit and explicit knowledge. The explicit knowledge you gain from technical training courses, for example, lets you leverage the tacit knowledge gained from your experience, your team, and your insight into customer needs.
Instead of stumbling through tools like Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, professional training lets you finish tasks faster. Your explicit knowledge about technical shortcuts and best practices frees up more time in your day. That lets you spend more time with your team or with your customers, growing your tacit experience. If you work in a design-centric business that charges a project rate, you’ll earn more money for your company by completing more billable tasks each week.
If you’re using Adobe products as only a small part of your job, show your boss how training can help you spend more time focused on your core responsibilities. And if you’re a design professional who’s been using Adobe tools for years, emphasize how Adobe’s constant innovation leads to major changes in their software platform between versions. Gaining mastery of these advanced tools reduces the time you’ll spend asking for help or researching solutions to your Creative Suite questions.
2. Save On Taxes
YOUR BOSS WILL SAVE MONEY ON TAXES AND PAYROLL.
It’s a long-standing human resources hack: bosses almost always prefer to pay for professional development requests rather than hear their team members ask for raises. In many companies, managers must jump through plenty of hoops to adjust compensation for their significant contributors.
When your boss hands you a raise, she’s also budgeting for higher outlays for Medicare, Social Security, and retirement plan funding. Ask for her to cover the cost of your Adobe training instead, and she knows she’s only making a short term commitment that actually results in a tax write-off.
3. Improve Quality
DESIGN IS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY
You’re not wrong if you believe that poor design and sloppy execution can impact your business. David Ogilvy and other advertising industry icons built their agencies on the expertise of matching their clients’ messages with the right images and presentation. A poor image or a hasty design can “tune out” a prospect, so emphases how professional Adobe training can help you deliver the kind of designs that keep your company from losing those conversions.
If you are a marketing communication professional, from a day-to-day business standpoint, improving the quality of your work lessens the likelihood that your customer will return your product, or that your client will ask for rework. Getting it right the first time reduces the amount of money you’ll spend on refunds, while improving your chances for client referrals.
4. Spend Less Externally
YOUR BOSS WON’T SPEND AS MUCH ON OUTSIDE RESOURCES.
Many companies rely on outside help when they need to complete projects using Adobe Creative Suite. In-house designers can easily get backlogged with requests from throughout a company, resulting in calls to freelancers and temporary agencies. If that sounds like the place where you work, building even basic Adobe skills can mean that you can handle more of these requests on your own instead of either delaying a project or raiding a budget.
However, for the majority of companies that don’t staff Adobe experts in-house, your Creative Suite training can reduce the need to engage with specialized agencies or with unreliable contractors. If your boss has ever had to spend time and money taking a gamble on an unknown temporary Adobe expert, she’ll appreciate investing that time and money into your training instead.
5. Build Your Team
LEARNING CAN RESULT IN SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIC COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
If your boss operates a company that’s keen on professional development, your Adobe training can give her the kind of case study she needs to inspire other team members. Teams typically work harder and deliver better results when they see they’re contributing to a company that gives them room to grow. Let your boss know that you’re willing to share your experience and motivate your peers to invest time in their own professional development.
It’s also hard to get fired when you’re the person on the team that everyone relies on for a specific skill. Asking for your boss to pay for your Adobe training equates to volunteering for more work and more responsibility, even if you’re not going to get a raise right away. Using your skills judiciously can result in creating raving fans among your colleagues, who’ll fight to see you get a raise or a promotion rather than lose access to your expertise.
5 Bonus Tips On The Conversation With Your Boss
Even after you’ve done your homework and sharpened your arguments, you’ll still have to place your request in the right context for your boss to extend her approval. Follow these five tips to make the conversation easier:
Remember that it’s never your manager’s job to get you ready for a higher-paying job outside the company, or to help you build the skills you’ll use to start your own business. When you focus on the impact you’ll bring to your existing team in your existing role, you’ll have the best shot at getting your Adobe training expenses reimbursed or covered completely.