By Bryan Orr
Every business that has a team needs to train well and often. You know that, I know that, Gary Busey even knows that! So why don’t you do more of it? That’s easy. You don’t do it because training takes time and effort. Not exactly something you feel you have an excess amount of.
Here are my top pointers to start training your team tomorrow.
1. Make Videos of the Job Done Correctly
Here is how you do this. Text your nephew, Cody, you know the guy who lives in his parents’ basement playing video games all day? Say you will pay him $100 if he follows your employees around with his video capable smartphone for 5 hrs and then edit the videos into training videos showing how different tasks are done. Trust me, Cody knows how to do this. All you need to do is make sure he follows around your most experienced employees and that they talk as they work.
Boom.
You have training videos you can use to teach new employees during orientation. Speed the videos up and only show the highlights of the tricky tasks this particular employee does well and now you have a video you can share with your existing staff.
2. Send Emails
Emails… yes, emails. Hear me out. Send really short emails that cover one training topic. No more than two paragraphs. Make them funny, share a photo, say something nice about one of your staff members, and teach one thing.
ONLY ONE THING. Don’t test the attention span of your staff or they will stop reading and never start again. Do it often enough and you might find your employees actually enjoy them.
3. Have Weekly Training Meetings
Have regular, one-hour training meetings and record the audio from the meeting (You can use your phone or use a cheap recorder like the ZOOM H1.), and then have the meetings transcribed using a service like Rev.com. You can then compile these longer training sessions into a full blown training manual that your managers can use when you become a billion dollar business. Or just when you go on vacation.
When you do these hour long meetings make sure to use role playing whenever possible. Don’t just stand there and talk. Engage your audience.
4. Do a Training Series
You can make this week “Customer Service Week” and do 15-minute trainings with the team on different training topics each day:
- Monday – First Impressions
- Tuesday – Staying Present
- Wednesday – Asking Good Questions
- Thursday – Overcoming Price Objections
- Friday – Conflict Resolution
I just made all of these up, but I’m sure you can come up with a great training series that will improve your business outcomes with just one week of 15-minute training sessions.
A business leader once told me “I only hire people who already know how to do the job I’m asking them to do, why would I want to train anyone?”
Give me a break….
Training is important for every business, and as a business leader you have to take the bull by the horns and make training a priority. TODAY.