Measuring the Full Cost of Residential Training for Medical Representatives

Residential training can provide a focused environment for onboarding, product training, sales skills, and compliance programmes. However, the actual cost of the training programme is never confined to the venue fee.

When considering residential programmes, the key question that pharma learning and development teams should ask is: What does it really cost to train one medical representative?

This should include travel, accommodation, meals, venue cost, cancellation, and employee reimbursement, and facilitate comparisons with regional programmes, helping decide on the right format depending on the types of training.

Start With the Total Cost Per Participant

One of the most straightforward ways to measure residential training cost is:

Total programme cost ÷ Number of participants = Cost per participant

However, total programme cost needs to take into account all costs related to the training session. Here are some examples of possible categories:

• Participant travel
• Accommodation
• Meals and refreshments
• Training venue
• Trainer and facilitator costs
• Training materials
• Local transportation
• Cancellation charges
• Administrative expenses

For instance, if the price of a three-day residential programme costs ₹6,00,000 for 50 participants, the cost of the programme per participant will be ₹12,000 . However, such figures are relevant only if all the major costs are included in the programme cost.

The Role of Travelling in the Training Cost Equation

Travelling is often one of the major variable costs in residential training.

The national pharma sales force consists of medical representatives who travel from different cities. Air fares, train tickets, transport, airport or train station transfer services add up fast and significantly increase the programme cost.

Thus, the cost of travel should be estimated with clearly set assumptions:

• Expected participants × Average travel cost per participant

Historic data about travel expenses can improve the accuracy of the estimate. Companies should also consider whether participants are travelling from near territories or across different states.

Account for Accommodation and Meals Costs

Accommodation is a normal part of residential programmes that involves participation of medical representatives.

The calculation can be made on the basis of:

• Number of participants × Nights × Room rate

Where there is no package arrangement by the hotel or other venue provider, meals must be estimated separately. Examples might include:

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea break, and refreshment expenses can be calculated separately assuming cost per head on a daily basis.

Meals become relevant in cost comparison in case of comparison between residential training programs and regional training sessions where participants can go back to their homes each day.

Don’t Forget Cancellations

Cancellation fees are one of those expenses that get ignored in planning training programs. Cancellation fee for the trainees might apply if they have made the travel arrangements in advance or reserved a hotel room.

Thus, the L & D team should always keep in mind the possibility of cancellation reserve for future programs, which might be estimated using past experience and attendance records.

For example:

• Expected cancellations × Average non-refundable cost per participant

Residential vs Regional Training

Format of a training program should be decided according to the location of participants, duration and goals of the training program.

While residential training will generally be more expensive in terms of accommodation and travel, it can decrease distractions and gather a geographically dispersed sales team. Regional training will usually lower accommodation and travel expenses, especially if the training participants are located close to the training site.

Here are some assumptions for a simple comparison:

Residential: ₹12,000 average cost per participant
Regional: ₹6,500 average cost per participant

It should be noted that these numbers are illustrative only and are not indicative of industry standard rates. Every company should use its own travel, venue, accommodation, and food prices.

The comparison will become much more valuable if the same training material and number of participants will be considered in both formats.

When Expense Reimbursement is Relevant

After the training programme, participants might submit claims for travel, food, transport, and any and other eligible expenses. A slow medical representative expense reimbursement process can generate extra paperwork for L&D and finance teams.

Employee reimbursement delays will negatively impact the participants, especially if employees had already paid for travel or other approved expenses themselves.

When dealing with large field sales teams, mobile expense claims for field teams may come in handy, as participants will be able to submit expenses and upload supporting documents while travelling.

Use Digital Receipts for More Cost Visibility

Traditional paper receipts and spreadsheets reduce visibility into the actual cost of the training programme.

With digital receipt capture for pharma, financial teams will be able to collect supporting documents and connect them with the particular employee, programme or expense type. At the same time, it will provide faster reimbursement for field staff as well.

And, from the point of view of learning and development teams, this means that there is a chance to identify which element – travel, accommodation, meals or cancellations – drives the cost of the training programme above the planned budget.

How Expendesk Helps to Manage Employee Expense Claims Associated with Training Programmes

Expendesk offers digital receipt capture, OCR, policy validation, approvals, duplicate detection, audit trail and other tools, which may help pharmaceutical companies to manage the mentioned expenses.

Rather than looking through a myriad of documents, finance teams can rely on workflows to assess and approve eligible expenditures.

This allows the team to maintain a record of the total actual costs of running such events in the past that can be used during planning future training events.

Measure the Cost Before Booking

The actual cost of residential medical representative training is not the cost stated on the venue invoice. Transportation, accommodation, catering, cancellation charges, and other supporting costs are what actually determines the final cost per participant.

Through measuring these costs and comparing with regional training assumptions, pharmaceutical learning and development teams can make better decisions regarding programme planning.

The idea is not to determine the least expensive training format, but rather, to determine how much the company pays per participant and where the money goes.