Don’t Make Employee Training a Pain: Here’s How You Do It Right

One of the best ways to strengthen your team is by making sure their training period goes as smoothly and effectively as possible. So don’t make the training goofs that so many other employees make! Here’s how you can make sure training really works wonders for your business.

Cutting out time-wasting. If you’re wasting time in the office, then this isn’t optimal for learning new work methods. Let’s say you’ve got a bunch of meetings that you need to have. Is it absolutely essential that employees in training need to be there? Of course, this depends a lot on what the employee’s position is. But, in most cases, it’s worth remembering that most meetings are a waste of time anyway. If you bring employees in training into them, it might just distract them from their learning process.

The value of learning on the job. A lot of business owners don’t go for formal training programs, and there are often many good reasons for it. Sometimes it’s to cut costs. Sometimes it’s because they feel that learning on the job is the best way about it. Both of these are valid reasons to forgo formal training, though some companies may find that these problems don’t affect them. But if you are going to let an employee learn on the job, then you need to avoid constantly looking over their shoulder. Give them a bit of space. This being said, make sure they’re able to require your assistance when they need it.

Proper progress evaluation. How exactly do you intend on knowing how effective a given training method is if you’re not actually checking the employee’s performance? This can be a fairly easy task if there’s just one new employee and they’re working closely with a line manager. But even when there’s just one new employee, you still need to know how the process is affecting the team as a whole. You can optimize performance management with Six Disciplines if you require assistance in keeping the feedback process efficient.

The right equipment. Don’t throw employees into the deep end of the pool if they don’t have the right equipment to stay afloat! Don’t be tempted to give new employees some of the older equipment that doesn’t run quite as efficiently as everyone else’s; I’ve seen this so many times in the offices I’ve worked in. If anything, you should be giving new employees in training the faster equipment! After all, you’ve got to do your best to help make up for the fact that they’ll work slightly slower than everyone else at first, anyway!

Expert assistance. Perhaps you feel that you don’t have the time or the expertise to give new employees the training you feel they need. You might want to search for training programs in the given field in your area. There are many freelance instructors who go to offices to train employees in particular work methods. You could even look into online courses if you feel that they could help you in your business, especially if the training mostly deals with software.

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