Question: I have an inexperienced team of people. They”™re eager and want to learn, and they are picking things up quickly. That said, I need to get them ready for a big seasonal push that”™s coming within a few short weeks. How do I get them started right ”“ and quickly?
Thoughts of the day: Getting things done right is important. Lay out a training plan in writing. Test for comprehension in small doses. Look for trainers within the pool of people who do the work already. Get out of the way to find out if they can do it. Move people around until you get the right fit.
Doing work without mistakes saves time, effort and money. Multiply revenue by 1 percent. That”™s a dollar estimate of what each 1 percent increase in costs related to errors means to your business. That should be motivation enough to make it worth your while to figure out how to move new people into the workforce with as little disruption and as few errors as possible.
Before you put people to work, prepare some written instructions. They”™ll pick up more if you back that up with written notes they can refer to as they go about doing the work. Ask people to make corrections to the training notes if they find something that doesn”™t make sense or that is done differently from the way it was described.
Decide how much should be taught each day and how to measure progress. The first time is the hardest; after the first round of training you”™ll have benchmarks based on the first group”™s progress. If error rates spike, slow down the training until the error rate drops.
Go through each routine or job that people will be performing and lay out the parameters. Identify who should be consulted if there”™s a question. If more than one person is involved, put it in writing ”“ who to go to for what.
Set up a time at the end of each day to review how things went. Focus first on what went well and how much progress was made. Then talk about what went wrong, and what errors or problems people encountered.
Encourage people to discuss problems openly. Ask them to describe how they dealt with the challenges they ran into and what they learned. Make sure that people who are struggling get someone assigned to work with them one-on-one. Wrap up with encouragement for the next day by focusing on the progress made so far.
Start the next day with a brief meeting to go back over what has been learned. Remind people about lessons from the previous day”™s wrap-up. Ask if anyone had any insights overnight that they”™d like to share.
Find competent trainers who can teach people what to do and act as positive role models. Look at the pool of people who already do the job well. Ask one or two of them to do training part time. Look for trainers who take pride in a job well done, who do it with a smile and who are good at encouraging those around them to enjoy what they”™re doing.
Think twice about moving someone into training just because they”™re good at the task. Make sure they have good people skills as well. A big part of training is motivating and encouraging people.
Steadily ramp up the tasks people are asked to perform. If they make mistakes, see if they recognize they”™ve made a mistake and if they can fix it on their own. Give people a chance to show you without being interrupted. If possible, make people figure out how to fix their mistakes instead of fixing it for them. If they don”™t get it, then show them how to do the task and ask them to do it exactly the way you showed them.
Consider that people may have hidden talents. You might hire a person to do one task and then find out they”™re really good at something else. Don”™t be afraid to switch people around. Move someone else in to do the task you hired this person for. Move this person on to the tasks for which they”™ve shown more aptitude.
Looking for a good book? Try “Enterprise Performance Management Done Right: An Operating System for Your Organization” by Ron Dimon.
Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., strategyleaders.com, a business-consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. She can be reached by phone at 877-238-3535. Do you have a question for Andi? Send it via email to AskAndi@strategyleaders. Visit AskAndi.com for an entire library of Ask Andi articles.
