Last Updated on Jan 11, 2020 by James W
As someone who is running a business, there are a handful of things which are unavoidable. Taxes, payslips, training days. The latter is a particular irritation for many because for that day, none of your staff are doing anything remotely productive. They’re either learning a new system, or they are training new staff.
However, this does not necessarily have to be the case. There are numerous instances where someone can take a staff training day and turn into a productive day, but many just don’t realise that. What we are going to do is take a look at exactly how you would accomplish that for you.
Learning on the Job
If you run a business which has a set up that allows for the easy changing and amending of completed tasks, then you can potentially implement a learn on the job policy. This used to be a very popular way of training because it meant that efficiency stayed high, and staff experience grew exponentially from day one.
What you do is sit someone down at a computer, show them the system, and then have them attempt to complete a very basic task for you. It reinforces the practical side of the job, and takes it away from the purely theoretical. You’ll see which staff members can learn to use their initiative, and which will need extra guidance further down the road, while at the same time keeping the business ticking over.
Team Building Activities
Team building activities are a great way for people to get to know their colleagues and friends, while at the same time developing a skill that will be useful for them later on in their career. The thing about good team building solutions is that you can tailor it so it benefits the business at the same time.
Let’s say for example that you run a digital marketing company. A good team building activity would be to have the new staff members design a potential advertisement. What are you then have is a collection of advertisements which could be taken and repurposed for use later down the road. It allows you to see how each member of the team will work, and at the same time gives you access to potentially useful resources.
Dummy Sales Calls
A very common strategy for training large groups of people at the same time is to group them based on their role in the company. So for example, all the members of the sales team will be trained together. This does turn it around and give you the opportunity to implement a practical training exercise which can offer additional value for the business.
Following the example of sales representatives, a good idea can be to run a test involving dummy sales calls. There are stakes, and no real gains or losses in either instance, but it means that people are learning on the job, you’re seeing who has the potential to go far in the company, and it also gives you the chance to ease people into the environment they will be working in. You might mix it up and actually include some real customers in there, but that’s up to you.
To summarise, there are a lot of situations where it can be highly beneficial for a company to turn a training day into a productive workday, without overloading the employees and helping new staff members to get used to the swing of things.
Sitting people down in the conference room and trying to teach them how to be a sales representative isn’t going to prepare them for that moment when someone rings the phone and they have to answer it. Sometimes, a more practical approach is needed. And if you can turn it into an exercise that benefits the company, then everybody wins.
