Ever sit through a classroom training program in our service industry’? I’m sure you have and I’m equally sure you’ve been less than excited about the material. In the old days it was slides. Today, it’s ppt presentations….still boring, right?
Truth is, the kind of training we do is typically required by a state or the federal government. So, having fun with these [mostly technical] topics can be challenging.
Point: Great trainers…those whose sessions and presentations create real ‘water cooler buzz’, have one thing in common. Great trainers help to fill the room with interested learners…those who want to be there. They have learned that interested, involved people retain and use more of the information presented.
Wait a minute…I train the people we hire, right? I don’t get a choice do I? That is exactly my point. If the hiring manager[s] in your company does not carefully screen candidates and select only those people who come to your company believing in your company philosophies and willing to follow your procedures, training will never meet expectations. Said another way, if you hire people who just want a job vs. your job, no training program can be counted on to convince them that your way is the best way..or to significantly impact their thinking. Training can only help willing learners.
Year after year, time stressed ‘service industry’ managers go through their spring training process as best they can, often with little preparation and inadequate tools. Inevitably, we see a few disinterested new hires yawning, heads down or staring out the window. I want you to know that, while we owe our adult learners challenging and participative training, we cannot make a disinterested person interested.
So, don’t blame your training program for achieving poor results if the people in the classroom didn’t really want to be there in the first place.
Great trainers help management focus on candidate selection. There is simply no excuse for hiring “warm bodies”. To make training pay off, fill you seats with ONLY those candidates who have satisfied you that they want to learn the business and will follow your procedures consistently.
Be certain your interview process includes effective, open ended, probing questions that uncover the candidates past behavior. Before making the hiring decision, learn from each candidate what specific experiences they have had that convince you he/she will follow your procedures, learn and apply what they are taught?
And, once on board, know this….training begins day one! Great trainers control every part of the early employment experience. Nothing is left to chance. Learning is delivered effectively in small bites and reinforced with on-the-job ‘ride along’ coaching. At the end of each training day, the new hire’s morale and feelings are monitored and help guide the trainer in his/her direction and handling of the trainee. Not all of us learn at the same rate of in the same way. Some “get it” from our presentations, some don’t really learn until we are with them, post-classroom, on the job. Both training situations are important and an effective program.
Great trainers ensure that each new hire experiences lots of support and early success. They know that success motivates us all and that new hire who is taught to succeed early is far less likely to quit.
Let’s review.
- Great trainers impact the company hiring [recruiting/interviewing] process by helping ensure that new hires want ‘this job vs. a job’.
- Great trainers understand training begins day one and control the new hire’s early experience completely.
- Great trainers see to it that each new hire is heavily supported by positive people and experiences early success.
Think about the above three points. Where is your new hire training program? Now, right now, is the time to improve.
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