Tough times call for tough training

With the downturn in the market, good staff are still surprisingly hard to find, particularly at the operator level. As one executive puts it: "Good staff have become rare. Everyone's competing for the same pool of labour. The young, often with limited education, unskilled and without any career in mind, are just working for a couple of months until they find something they like. Our organization is understaffed. Sick leave is on the rise, morale is down, productivity and efficiency are low. On top of that, the supervisors are overworked. We are caught in a vicious circle." What can he do? The number one solution, both short and long term, is training. Often people think of "training" as only skill and knowledge building. However there are additional plusses from good training - motivation and a positive attitude. These can be even more important than the skill and knowledge development. Training takes time and money - two resources that are in short supply at the moment. However, both can be overcome with a little creativity. Before thinking about the type, content, length of training, there is one principle that must be at the forefront of every manager's mind: "We are training our people to be the best in the business." This is irrespective of how long they may stay with you, how junior they are, how inexperienced, or how de-motivated they might be. It must be a case of: "We attract the best people. When they leave us, they leave with far more skills than when they arrived." People must want to work for your organization - this requires that you build a reputation. Your people must be seen as an asset rather than a cost. This can only start when the CEO and top people share this view - this attitude will show in their behaviour.

Training is the best solution to problems related to staff performance and tenure

The type of training? Customer service training is the best because it incorporates all the skills that are transferable throughout the organization, including management. What's more, it can help the bottom line. Who should attend? The training must start with the top team. All the top managers must undertake the training first. Then, each manager or supervisor in the organization (including the CEO) must act as a sponsor to one training group - i.e.. he / she (in addition to having undergone the training first) must participate in the training of another group in the organisation. The sponsor should be there to support the trainer, follow up with participants individually and hold short team sessions with people on how they have applied the training. (These meetings can be as short as 5 minute sessions. In one organization, they were called the "5 minute update" - very powerful and motivating.) Who should conduct the training? You may have a good internal trainer. Alternatively, there are two choices. A very good external trainer, or convert one of your managers into a trainer. Turning your managers and supervisors into trainers (particularly in tough times) can be both a cost saving and a great boost to their personal skills - most people also find it highly motivating. How long should the training be? Ideally at least a two-day workshop. However, in some businesses there is a lot of shift work and getting people together for any length of time is hard. In these cases it may be necessary to break the training up into small modules of 1 to 2 hours. Pay people to come in early or stay later. The benefits far outweigh the small costs. Good follow-up systems, such as having the staff measure customer satisfaction (themselves, not the standard "fill in the form") adds greatly to the training effectiveness. In fact this is essential. At the start of the training, staff should be encouraged and coached in how theyChuck Taylor All Star