Businesses thrive when you have an efficient and competent staff. However, you don’t just get the best staff. You need to spend hours on their training and providing them with a positive environment and flexible workplace so that they can work with you for long. In order to get the level of performance you expect from your employees, it is your duty to ensure that you are clear in communicating your values and your expectations from them from the start of their career at your workplace.
This isn’t easy to do. Staff training requires some serious hard work and a lot of thinking – before you make the first hire and during the initial months at the workplace.
Not only you need to effectively communicate your values and work ethics to the new employee, but you also need to make sure that all the information you are throwing his/her way is easily digestible by him/her.
You need to hand over written guidelines so that they practically implement the rules and act as you want to while making great judgments whenever the need be.
This can get overwhelming, as training is not just a one-time task. Staff training is a composite of many moving parts and is a continued process.
In order to overcome the challenges that you are likely to face during staff training, here are few tips from top industry experts that you should consider using during your next hiring cycle.
The first step is to document all the related information of a job position before you start looking for the ideal candidate. You have to do this task, even after you make the hire, so why not be prepared beforehand. Every employee needs to know what his job description is; therefore it is best to maintain the requirements before your bring someone in.
Some retailers try to quicken the hiring process, cutting short the recruiting process, which can lead to hiring the wrong candidate. It’s best to follow a thorough recruiting process, so that you can carefully assess all the skills and capabilities of your hire. Therefore, before the real training begins, you can make the task easier by choosing the candidates that will enjoy working for your company.
When you train your staff, make sure that your actions resonate with what you are teaching them. Practicing what you preach can help your employees view these trainings as your company’s culture rather than just meaningless talk. You should also document what your employee is best at doing so that you can make most from his learning curve. Also, make most of his potential by giving him the training that suits his potential.
Most retailers overburden employees with details about tasks and duties that they are expected to perform. However, they miss out on an integral part of equipping their staff about their workplace culture. This is very essential in bigger companies where there are distinctive norms, and newcomers can easily be confused on practices they need to adopt.
The first few months of your new hire are very important. Employees are exposed to various factors that they are not used to, as they try to fit into the culture, forming perceptions about their jobs and workplace.
This means you want to integrate your new hire with your existing team in a way that the connection is seamless. This can only be done if you just don’t limit your training to first few days, rather keep it ongoing until your new hire becomes an indispensable part of your team.
Make your employees feel empowered by giving them constructive feedback. You can also allow them to exercise their best judgments in situations, which requires them to take action.
Once your new hire has used their best judgment, you can either praise them for their wise choice or give constructive criticism on how they could have chosen a better method.