Modern business is developing in a highly competitive environment. Many opportunities generate high demands - for efficiency, quality, range. To be the best, it is not enough to sell a high-quality product or provide a good service — you need to surpass the competitors in many other indicators: the level of service, the number of additional services, and geographical accessibility. It's also about building long-term loyalty.
Quality of service - service is one of the most powerful tools that affects the frequency of repeat purchases. Therefore, preparedness and positive motivation of personnel play a crucial role in this process. It is obvious that brilliantly trained experts rarely knock on the door of the employer. Staff need to be trained. And this is not a one-time procedure, it is a process - accompanying the development of your business throughout the life cycle of the company.
Organization of staff training.
So, you opened your business (or decided to carry out a large-scale reorganization, or opened a new division) - as a result, a carefully selected portion of freshly hired workers turned out to be on the doorstep of your office. Responsibilities clarified, with the schedule of work defined. It seems to be possible to start. However, now comes the most opportune moment for the most effective learning. And on how well you can organize it, will depend on the financial results.
There are two main staff training method at the initial stage:
- training of new employees by one of the experienced team members (or by the manager personally);
- training by an involved specialist.
Consider the features of each option.
If an experienced, well-proven team member (better if it is the head of the unit) takes newcomers, then freshly employed employees can immediately get acquainted with the peculiarities of the new work: how it is accepted to start and finish the working day in this company, what are the features of the interaction between units where it is customary to dine, to whom you can contact on certain issues.
This and other information about the internal order in the company is invaluable. And if the instruction is conducted by a loyal, positively motivated employee, then new employees will also be positively tuned from day one. In addition, receiving primary information from one of their colleagues, future team members will be able to ask questions about any processes or trifles - without formalism, forming team spirit in the process of communication.
The organization of staff training with the involvement of a specialist is useful professional techniques and effective cases. Especially if the given HR manager works on your staff. It happens that the company cooperates with the manager from the outside, but on an ongoing basis - then all the positive moments (as in the situation with a full-time specialist) are preserved: such a manager is well acquainted with the company's requirements for each position, the company's internal schedule, and the peculiarities of interaction between departments.
When and why to train existing staff.
New employees joined the team, duties are clear to all and performed correctly. Is it possible to consider the issue of staff training closed? No, never! Staff training system is continuous. Regardless of how often you update personnel, existing employees cycle through the following stages:
- training;
- monitoring and evaluation;
- new stage of development.
The “background” for these stages on an ongoing basis is self-education. Of course, the presence of such a positive factor strongly depends on the motivation (and loyalty) of employees, as well as on the presence of a healthy climate in the company and a positive example of top management.
Your employees are real people. And no matter how well they were prepared initially, over time they begin to do their job worse. This is how the human brain works - the process of adaptation is inevitable. And this should not be regarded as a negative factor or be considered evidence of poorly chosen staff. This is normal.
To maximize the efficiency of each unit, you need to develop staff training schedule, which includes the steps of obtaining information and periodic monitoring.
In practice, it looks like this: take, for example, the sales department. At least once a month - classes for the staff of this unit with new information (active sales techniques, methods of working with objections, standards for communicating with Clients, etc. - depending on the specifics of the business); and one more time a month - exams. As a rule, examinations are conducted before the training - in order to pay attention to the points that have revealed weaknesses in personnel training.
Usually, both exams and training are conducted by the same specialist. And again - this can be a full-time HR manager, or it can be an outsourced professional. However, it is better that this is the same person for a long time (such a manager is familiar with the requirements of the company's management and clearly understands the strategic objectives of the training).
Thus, employees will always be “in good shape,” because their income will depend on the results of the examinations, and the company’s management will have up-to-date information on the level of personnel training. Over time, the evaluation of staff training will become a familiar criterion for making decisions about bonuses or promotions, a timely means of obtaining information about the incompetence of one of the employees.
Other methods of staff training.
In addition to the systematic cycles of "control-training-control" are non-periodic forms of obtaining new knowledge:
- personal or corporate training;
- seminars, conferences and forums (usually for top managers);
- webinars;
- refresher courses;
- various programs (such as MBA).
It is important to maintain in the company a positive (and active) attitude towards continuous self-education: reading business literature, online (and print) professional journals, and Internet portals on specialized topics. The formation of such a corporate culture is a painstaking process and requires the implementation of such actions from all participants in the process, including the company’s management. It is useful to organize the exchange of professional literature, make it a familiar and desirable process - and after a while there will be more new ideas, and the level of preparation will be higher.
A company that chooses such an active way of improving competencies will definitely be successful. It is not necessary to verify or prove, it is simply necessary to do.
