Employee Training Basics

In the July 2003 issue of HSR: Health Supplement Retailer, I wrote about job descriptions. This is where training begins—long before you hire an employee. Determining a job needs to exist and what tasks make up that job also identifies the skills necessary to perform it and the way successful completion is measured. Waiting until staff members are hired to begin planning for their training is reactive rather than proactive. (Reactions are better than no actions, but not as good as “pro-actions.”) Training occurs in two areas: with new employees and with existing employees. First, let’s address new employees. The major decision in this area is deciding which skills you are willing to teach and which skills you expect prospective employees to have before you hire them. When hiring someone to do clerical work, a certain level of basic computer skills would likely be required. Performance of specific duties, use of any proprietary software, etc., would be expected employee training. When hiring someone who will be in touch—in person or by phone—with customers, it should be a given that that person be disposed to customer service. This skill, while it can be expanded and refined, seems to be one people either have or they don’t. If someone doesn’t have the skill, it’s not really something you can teach.

You can teach people to run a register, stock a shelf, work your backstock, etc., but you cannot teach them how to care.

Before training existing staff, there are many questions to ask. For what skills will you conduct internal training, which ones would you help employees to obtain externally, and which skills would you expect them to obtain on their own? Jobs change at a company, and demand for different skills ebbs and flows. These questions should also come up if you are considering moving an employee into a different job, either as a promotion or a lateral move. Some aspects of training are squarely the employer’s responsibility. In these cases, you must determine if it can be handled internally or if the skills are best taught using a school, a seminar, a workshop, etc.

A need for training existing staff can be created by a change in positions, a change in job expectations or a change in an employee’s work goals. Part of the responsibility for an employee’s training and development is his, and some falls to the employer. If you want to make a change in your employee’s duties, more of the responsibility for the training shifts to your court. By the same token, if he wants a change in duties, the greater burden should be his.

A powerful training tool is “on-the-job” (OTJ) training. An employee is trained while he works, learning new skills while on the job. There is a lot of value to this kind of training. There is some productivity while it is happening, so the cost isn’t prohibitively high.

Because the skills and concepts are learned while in a work—rather than a classroom—environment, they are more likely to become a part of the employee’s regular work routine. OTJ training is usually done by someone proficient in the skill, so the employer knows what the employee is being taught to do. The employee is also being taught skills in accordance with established company standards and in such a way that it helps ensure performance consistency.

A word and a concept I like to use to describe a successful business environment is kaizen. This Japanese term is best translated as “a process of continual change.” Instead of having an organization that is fearful of change and only embarks on change on a crisis-solving basis, the organization embraces continual change. Instead of change—and the training it necessitates—being thought of as the result of someone’s mistakes and failures, it is instead seen as the normal process of improvement and expansion.

Another way of saying this is, “We are about fixing problems, not fixing blame.” Change is a part of continual improvement. Training, as a part of change, also needs to be continuous, ongoing and a part of any organization’s lifeblood.

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