7 Steps To Streamline Your Training
Let’s paint the picture, you have a new job and you are so enthusiastic to get started. You are told by your new boss, that a supervisor will be assigned to you and will “show you the ropes.” It’s the first day, you briefly meet your supervisor as she is whisked away to a meeting. She hands you an employee training manual, which is dated 2008. She explains that a lot of the manual is outdated, but that you will get the gist of it. Apparently, there are some recorded webinars for you to watch from a few years back, but she has to locate them first. She also tells you that she already has work for you to do, so please check your email and she will be back later that day. You are left alone with your outdated training manual and an email list about a mile long feeling totally overwhelmed.
Face it, this is definitely a typical scenario found in many businesses and organizations in every industry. Even if the picture above doesn’t reflect your work environment, it isn’t new news that most business environments do not have the time or the funds to do high-performance, in-house training for their employees. Which unfortunately leads to many skill gaps in the workforce, resulting in lower productivity and overall profit.
So what action steps can you take right now to begin to find the weakness in your training? The first step is to streamline your training.
1. Keep The End In Mind
Often the biggest mistake trainers make is that they don’t begin with the end in mind. Does the training define the audience? Are there outlined goals and objectives? If not, then it is time to reevaluate your methods. Training needs to meet learners where they are at, and that can’t be done unless we understand specifics about the audience. Make sure to brainstorm with your team about who needs training and why.
2. Skill Gaps
Sometimes the best way to find the weakness in your training program is by observing the skill gaps in your workforce. What behaviors, results, or production is missing in your work environment? Knowing the answer to this question is vital because often it’s what is missing in your training.
3. Refine And Automate Your Workflow
Every employee should have a job and knowledge on how to execute it. There should be defined expectations for everyone in your work environment. If there isn’t, usually that means there is a gap in learning. What does the overall workflow look like? Does it need to be redefined? Do all the employees understand the hierarchy of your work environment? The answer to these questions will lead you to more effective training and production.
4. Don’t Overwhelm
It is vital that you don’t overwhelm your employees with too much information in training. Studies have shown that when a learner is given too much information they shutdown and learning becomes minimal. Have you identified needs and luxuries in your training? What do your employees need to know and what is pure luxury information. When it comes to training, simple, concise, and applicable is always the most effective.
5. Technologically Stimulating
Your training needs to keep up with the times in order for your learner to be engaged. We live in a fast-paced digital age, so it would behoove you to add technology to your training. Not ready to do a full-blown online training course yet? No problem! There are plenty of ways you can stimulate your team through technology with short online microlearning modules or digital media videos that prove to be fun, interactive, and cost-effective.
6. Develop A Mentorship Program
We cannot stress this enough, as something vital for new employees. Having a mentor is like having a port in the storm when new to your work environment. It helps employees feel supported and like they have someone they can speak to in order to gain more clarity about their position. If you don’t have mentors for your new employees, stop what you’re doing and go appoint them…this should have be done…like…yesterday.
7. Be Brave And Ask For Feedback
Let’s be real, feedback can often be rough to hear. But all leaders should be asking for it on a monthly or at least quarterly basis. Why? Because a happy work environment is a successful work environment. Here is some critical knowledge that you may not be aware of (that I probably heard from Oprah), all human beings want to feel like they are valued and appreciated. The minute employees feel undervalued is when they begin to be less productive. So ask for feedback and then work on your own weaknesses. Hear them out, so that in the end everyone is not only happy but high-performing.
Follow these 7 key elements and you will be on your way to streamlining your training.
