As organizations become more global, so does the workforce. Training employees use to be as simple as “bringing them in” to headquarters. Not anymore. Today, gathering a far-flung workforce together physically is impractical and expensive. The upside is that there are a wide variety of options from which to choose. The trick is to match your organization’s needs to the option that best suits them. Ask yourself, “What is the nature of the subject matter to be trained? Simple, standard, complex? What types of learners do I need to train (e.g., visual, auditory, read-write, kinesthetic)? What fits with my company culture? And finally, what type of budget and logistics do I have to work with?”

To help you make a great match between the needs of your organizations and the right training approach, below are four categories of training, examples, and the advantages and limitations of each:

Technology-based Solutions

Off-the-shelf eLearning: Packaged online eLearning tools, such as LinkedIn Learning, offer thousands of choices in pre-existing content. You may easily find something that matches, or at least comes close to the subject matter you need — great when resources and staff are limited. These tools can be challenging to use, however, if aspects of your employees’ learning style makes a packaged method hard for them to digest. Also, tools for tracking success and completion can be limited. Be sure the one you choose has well-developed, easy-to-use tracking functionality.

Custom designed eLearning: These methods range from a narrated PowerPoint presentation to full-blown authoring tools like Captivate or Articulate. Narrated PowerPoint is quick and easy to create and use, and lets you share the information widely via email or company website links. But engaging an audience for any length of time via a voice-over and static slides is challenging.

Authoring tools can be powerful at creating custom content that matches your culture, audience and subject matter. However, there is a significant learning curve involved in using them effectively; it’s an expertise that takes time to develop, however once in place, it’s highly valuable.

Synchronous distance learning: Web conferencing tools are great at bringing far-flung people together. They let you utilize PowerPoint or interactive screen-sharing to do demos and more. But again, keeping the audience’s attention for any length of time is tricky; presentations lasting more than a few hours reach a point of diminishing returns in terms of focus and effectiveness.

Train-the-Trainer Solutions

Train a core of trainers: When a particularly high level of interactivity or complexity is involved, it may be wise to train a core group of individuals and have them travel to satellite locations to train the masses. You’ll have strong amount of control over the content being trained. The downside: Constant travel is costly and logistics are time-consuming.

Train a trainer/champion at each location: You can bring individuals into your headquarters and train them, then send them back to their home base to train. This is great when the individual can do the initial training and also serve as ongoing liaison between their location and the hub to answer questions, tackle issues and work out bumps in the road. The downside? Quality control is tough. Variations can exist and the designated trainer can change jobs or leave, putting things back at square one.

Local/Regional External Providers

Community colleges: Using a community college can be cost effective. Their mission is to serve locally-based business and communities. They’re great for vocational and technical subject matters; however, resources for your particular subject matter can be hit or miss.

Professional seminar companies with local/regional offerings: Similar to community colleges, seminar companies like Fred Pryor/CareerTrack and SkillPath are convenient for standard content and can be quite reasonably priced. But you may be giving up much of the ability to customize training to your organization and needs, depending upon the capabilities of the provider.

Self-study Materials

Podcasts/downloads: Podcasts and/or downloads can be bought or subscribed to, and can be accessed from anywhere with a smart device. That’s perfect for employees like salespeople with large amounts of travel. They will have access to information while on the go.

So, what is the correct training method for your increasingly decentralized organization? It depends on your objectives, audience, learning culture, budget and other factors. The good news is that there’s a training solution or combination of solutions out there that will get the job done. It’s just a matter of taking stock of your specific needs and creating that perfect mix to take your organization to the next level of success.