22% of employees who left their jobs in 2019 cited a lack of training as the reason for leaving
– Report by The Work Institute
In conversations with employees within one of my previous companies, many people referred to their training as minimal or nonexistent and having been "thrown to the wolves."
The people that you interview and hire WANT to stay with you, until you give them a reason not to. On the other side of that coin, you invest a lot of time and money interviewing and selecting just the right people to hire. When you carefully select people that align with your values and goals, you need to invest in best practices in training.
Reasons people leave specifically related to training:
· Lack of structure
· Lack of relevance
· Lack of feedback
· Lack of support
· Lack of time
Structure – Follow plans that are laid out in your training materials, keep employees in one station at a time until they are confident.
Relevance – Teach what they need in the order of when they need it. Jumping ahead means they are learning things they may not have context for yet, which makes what they learn harder to stick. Make sure they get the basics first (clocking in, review training materials, a tour, meet & greet with managers and trainers.)
Feedback – Make sure you are acknowledging what trainees are getting right and what they may be missing. Review progress with your trainers daily to track learning modules and plan course correction in the moment if needed.
Support – Check in with the trainers and trainee daily to see where you can support the trainee or your trainers. Be aware of where the trainee is in their training plan and stay on track, not rushing them to move ahead before they are ready. Coach the trainers not to leave the “hip-to-hip” training position so trainees don’t feel unsupported as they’re learning how to be successful.
Time – Use and adhere to timelines in your training plans, not leaving trainees alone too early nor leaving them stagnant and considering them to be “in training” beyond the planned time, either. If the trainee has not met any competencies by the end of the originally planned training period, write out a plan with a definitive end date to catch up what they need to learn. This holds everyone accountable and completes training reasonably when life happens and the plan deviates.
Best practices to help your newest stars feel supported:
· Schedule trainees with a Certified Trainer whenever possible
· Be cautious of volume and staffing when making training schedules. Start employees on a slower day so they can work up to seeing higher volume
o Training needs to be scheduled with best training environment in mind. This means that we will not start employees on a Friday or Saturday, but they can work those higher volume shifts after they have been exposed to operations on lower volume days.
· Check in with them as they are learning, ask them questions about their trainer and invite questions from them.
Make it your training mission to create a positive, engaging training experience that empowers carefully chosen team members to reach their full potential.
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