If you are an HR or a team leader, you should already know it’s important to provide employees with additional trainings. But the CEO often has other ideas.

Often the top brass doesn’t really like the idea of spending money on additional trainings. Employees should already be qualified enough, right? Well, if you want them to stay on top of the trends, then you should help them out.

But if you say only this to the CEO he or she will simply roll their eyes at you. Happily more and more CEOs are seeing the benefits of providing additional trainings to their employees. Still, there are quite a few that need some extra convincing.

So, how to convince the CEO to approve the training budget?

Well, the obvious thing is to simply tell him or her that this will be beneficial not only for the employees, but for the entire company. But we all know it’s not as easy as that.

Now, the actual approach would depend on the type of character your CEO is. Some like more open and direct talks, while others should be cooed carefully. Choose your approach with this in mind.

For example, you may hit them where it hurts. Seek what your direct competitors have done. If they have held trainings already, were they reflecting the performance of the company? If so, this is a great detail to point out to your CEO. But you should also already have a decent idea of what trainings you want to provide to your team and a general idea how they will improve their performance by doing so.

Another option is to give concrete data about your expectations. Show the CEO exactly what you want to improve in your team and how the trainings will help you achieve that. While it is easy to spice your projections up a bit for added effect, it ‘s best to be as objective as possible. It’s better to outperform the forecasts than to underperform them.

Bring data

Also use external data. IBM for example says that for every $1 spent on eLearning tools and strategies it can receive up to $30 in productivity. According to The Ambient Insight, 42% of leading learning companies say online learning has led to an increase in revenue. Also, 56% say it has improved productivity. Now that’s a good investment, right?

Also, seek actual feedback from your team. Your request to the CEO will have much more weight if you come with the backing of your team who have expressed interest in participating in such trainings. Maybe even already know exactly which courses you need?

Bottom line, show your CEO the added value and make it hard to simply wave it off and decline. It’s not a subject you should discuss lightly when you bump into each other at the elevator. Instead prepare well. You will be talking about the future of the entire company after all. It is also a valid point to raise.