So, how do you train employees in small businesses so they have all the skills and abilities they need to be successful? Here are some best practices from clients who have created effective and efficient … and profitable … learning cultures.
- Hire people who are already trained – who already have the skills you need. Might cost a little more, but they should be more productive sooner and you can assess their specific skills easier during the interview process.
- Precisely determine which specific skills are needed to do the job at hand at an acceptable level of productivity and quality and why they’re needed. Then find the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to accomplish that learning need.
- Options include – self-training books; on-line courses; having a more experienced employee teach the new people and mentor them; hiring a consultant to do it on site, sending them to local training programs, etc.
- Make managers responsible for assessing on-going training needs of their staff, creating developmental plans and ensuring compliance. Evaluate the managers accordingly.
- Business leaders can network with colleagues, professional or industry groups to find appropriate local sources of training those specific skills needed. They can also use social media posts to find that information.
- When delivering one-on-one or on-the-job training or teaching others to do it, follow this simple process.
- 1. Explain the entire task and why it’s important or necessary.
- 2. Show what it looks like at the end.
- 3. Break in down into specific steps and demonstrate each.
- 4. Ask for questions.
- 5. Have the new person do each step slowly, feeding back instructions.
- 6. Then, monitor periodically to insure quality and comfort.
- 7. After several weeks of successfully completing the task, ask the person for ways to improve the task or the training of it.
Job skill/workplace training is an investment in people, productivity and profitability. It should be the highest priority for investing time and money and the last item to be reduced when times are tough. That’s how real learning culture organizations do it. Shouldn’t you?