Global expansionpresents an exciting new challenge for professionals with a role in developing trainingand eLearning materials for an increasingly multicultural workforce. Perhapsthe biggest challenge is striking the right balance between requirements andresources to ensure you can deliver high quality training, when you need it,without breaking the budget.
As with everything youdo, planning is the key. But just how do you plan for globalization? Thefollowing four-step process will help you develop a globalization strategy sothat you can make a great first impression with users around the world, rollout multiple programs quickly—and stay on track with your budget.
1. Choose your adaptation approach
Before you dive into creating content, take a moment toidentify the types of content that will be effective for your audience, keepingin mind that simpler programs can be very effective and take less time andbudget to globalize. Then, determine what level of adaptation is appropriate.
While there are various levels of translation quality—rangingfrom straight translation to creating unique programs for each culture—thesweet spot for training tends to be a hybrid approach. This involves startingwith global-ready, culturally neutral content in modular building blocks. Witha modular approach, you can easily translate core content into requiredlanguages, while you can customize individual modules based on the culturalrequirements of your target audiences.
This approach results incontent that is much more nuanced and culturally relevant than straighttranslation, and gives you the flexibility to customize delivery without creatingseparate training programs for every language.
2. Familiarize yourself with the local culture and requirements
When building a global program, a wide array of culturaldifferences can affect your project. Instructional approaches, legalrequirements, character sets and orientation, and assessment and feedbackstrategies are just a few considerations that will affect your plans. The HRdepartment of your in-country office or an experienced globalization partnercan be a great resource to help identify these issues—and avoid missteps.
If you are working with an outside globalization partner, besure to look for one that has an established local project team to support you,with proven expertise in carrying out complete projects from initial programdevelopment to translation.
3. Create content that is global-ready
The main characteristic of global-ready content is that it avoidscultural references so that you can translate it very quickly and directly. Andthis doesn’t just apply to words. Avoiding analogies may not be too difficult,but are you aware of the connotations certain symbols—and even colors—have inother cultures? This is where your in-country team or globalization partner canhelp you increase the quality of your global-ready content to speed translationtimes and avoid possible rework.
Another aspect of the globalization process that will impactyour timeline and budget is how well the technology tools at your disposal candeal with linguistic and translation requirements. For example, tools shouldsupport multiple character sets and be able to adjust design elements to allowfor text expansion and/or vertical alignment. They should also allow you tokeep text separate from graphics to streamline translation. Other technologytools you might wish to consider include Wikis and other collaboration enablersthat are critical for keeping you connected with your local team.
4. Set your local team up for success
When it’s time to hand off your global-ready content to thelocal team for translation, make sure that responsibilities, expectations, andassessment factors are in writing and well understood. Give your team access toinstructions, style guides, glossaries, reference materials, and any technology-enabledtranslation tools you have prepared for the project. These can include acombination of translation memory databases, translation management systems,and automated machine translation. Carefully applying these tools in the rightcombination can dramatically boost efficiency and help you strike the rightbalance between quality and cost.
Success starts with planning ahead
When you need training materials for a global workforce,success starts with preparing global-ready content, and you can ensure it byleveraging partners and tools that can help you automate and streamline theglobal training development process all along the way. This ultimately resultsin more effective training and eLearning programs that you can produce andupdate quickly without straining your budget.
