A Small Business Training Solution
Small businesses owners and managers (less than 100 employees) face special
challenges when training their employees. The owners and managers in businesses
of this size are often counted on to participate in the delivery of the company’s
products or services and train new employees at the same time. They do not have
human resource departments or training departments. Consequently, any training
that employees receive usually occurs entirely in an on-the-job (OJT) format. This
makes it very difficult to properly train new people that join the company or improve
the skills of the existing staff.
This situation creates quite a paradox. On one hand, having well-trained, fully
competent employees is vital to the continued growth of the company. On the other
hand, there is neither the time nor money for the owner/manager to abandon their
day-to-day duties to focus on training a new employee. Typically, this results in
new employees learning their position “on-the-fly”, which causes inadequate and
incomplete training.
Our company, Lucid Business Strategies, has what we believe to be a unique
approach to solving this common situation – we create a customized OJT program
that allows the employee to literally train themselves. This approach allows the
employee to deeply into topics that interest them, and lets them move quickly
through the topics they already understand. Since the employee is doing most of the
work, the amount of training time required from the owner/manager is greatly
reduced.
Practice
The training we create is designed to put the new employee in charge of their own
learning. The new employee is given a participants manual that leads them step-bystep
through their training. This “guided learning” includes specific learning
activities to complete with their supervisor, on their own, with SMEs, company
resources, vendors, and customers. Each learning activity includes step-by-step
instructions and an explanation of what they are expected to be able to do on the job
after completing that activity. We include multiple methods of learning to ensure
that the new employee acquires every skill and learns every task that is required of
them on the job.
The participant’s manual includes exercises, case studies, quizzes and formal tests
which the employee must complete and review with their supervisor. This provides a
built-in evaluation process to ensure the employee is competent in each task or skill,
an opportunity for the owner/manager to provide additional training and feedback,
and evidence that they will be able to apply the skill on the job.
Obviously, we cannot eliminate the need for the owner/manager to be involved in at
least some of the training. We reduce this time involvement by including formal
training exercises in the participant’s manual that the owner/manager must be
involved in. This allows the owner/manager to provide consistent training with every
employee, and keeps them focused on the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities
they are trying to impart. This approach has the added benefit of providing the
employee with the way of knowing when they need their supervisors assistance, and
guidance about what they need to learn when are in training with their supervisor —
they can actually direct the training session themselves!
We also provide both the owner/manager and the employee with a method of
tracking their progress towards the completion of their training. We condense all of
the topics, exercises, activities, and evaluations into a checklist. Both the
owner/manager and the employee checks off the activities that has been completed,
which provides a visual cue of how much progress the employee is making in their
training, and a way to know how much of the training must still be completed. This
checklist doubles as a method of ensuring that the training stays on a reasonable
schedule.
When the employee completes all of the exercises in the participant’s manual, they
are fully trained and qualified for their position. Both the owner/manager and the
employee have full confidence that they have learned everything they will encounter
on the job, and that they have the ability to apply that learning in their day-to-day
work.
This approach has benefits for existing employees as well. If there is a particular
knowledge, skill, or ability that they are struggling with, they can use the
participants manual and checklists to guide themselves through the additional
training they need. The employee is assured of receiving very targeted training in a
one-on-one setting with the owner/manager, because the assignments and exercises
in the participant’s manual require it. Once the training is complete, both the
owner/manager and employee are then confident that they have learned that
particular skill correctly, and that they can apply it on on-the-job.
Results
One client we have used this approach with is a small company that sells cuttingedge
technology products. The training teaches new hires in-depth product
knowledge, an understanding of their marketplace, and basic sales techniques. Prior
to this OJT training, it took a new employee six to nine months to acquire enough
product knowledge to be effective in their sales process. Preliminary results show
that we have reduced this time to two to three months. Furthermore, the
salesperson’s that have completed the training have become some of the company’s
top producers within six months time.
Interestingly, new employees have rated the training as “outstanding”, even though
they have done the vast majority of the work. The previous training approach
resulted in 100% of the employees saying that the company’s training was “poor or
non-existent.”
Summary
Small business owners and managers have a very difficult time providing quality
training for their employees. Using traditional instructional design techniques, it is
possible to design an on-the-job training program that puts most of the training
responsibility on the employee. This approach ensures that the employee learns each
skill they need, and greatly reduces the amount of time the owner/manager must
invest in the training. It is also greatly reduces the overall training time, and can
improve the contribution of the new employee.
Original article published in ASTD Link March 2006. Download the full article here.