Get Positive Results from Training Employees
by Earl Rivard

Many years ago, I had an employee fail to meet a critical deadline which ended up costing me a substantial and profitable contract. After chewing out the “stupid employee”, I had an opportunity to reflect on his action. I concluded that you shouldn’t blame them unless you train them.
The best investment you can make right now, with immediate results, is to learn effectively how to train your employees. Most people respond well to receiving training that improves their skills and enhances their value in the workplace. A smart business owner or manager uses this as a way to motivate his or her employees.
Training should be based on the idea that true learning occurs when individuals discover something for themselves. Training programs should be based on objectives, skill checks, and reinforcement. Objectives include the conditions, action, and criteria. In other words, objectives tell you what you are given to work with (conditions), what you must do (actions) and how you will know when you are successful (criteria).
There are many positive results that result from training employees. This includes better customer service, higher sales and profits, fewer job mistakes that cost money, fewer work related injuries, reduced turnover and consistent implementation of company systems, polices and procedures.

Having trained employees is critical to our industry and your business success. Consider developing a training program based on the following criteria.

1. Training must be formal and inclusive. Don’t simply put one employee with another for a few days and expect the employee to be trained.
2. Develop a training checklist and be sure your training covers all the aspects of the job you expect to be completed.
3. Develop a methodology to deliver the training that includes training methods, testing, tracking, and documenting.
4. Prioritize training content to focus on must know and need to know training content.

Consider training an ongoing process. Successful companies recognize that having an ongoing training program builds skills and reduces turnover. In addition, having an ongoing training program allows you to select people from within the company who already have an understanding of your mission, vision, values, systems, processes and procedures, allows you to build a “pool” of qualified and potential candidates for management or supervisory positions.

Link your incentives to training and post training measurable improvements. This
gives employees, not only a positive reason to get more involved in the training, but to learn and even more importantly, apply what they learned. Above all, don’t become complacent with your training. It is important to continually update your training as operational practices of your business changes.

Just be mindful of the fact that people tend to do best at the work that they enjoy doing. You have some control over the situation simply by how you manage. When you give a person the latitude to decide how to do their job, instead of micro-managing every detail of every task, they will do things in a way that is most enjoyable for them. The result will be a more productive, satisfied employee while you will have more time for managing the 'big picture' and concentrate your time on the things that YOU do best too.


See all Articles from SelfGrowth.com Admin Top of Page