“Take a look at this training program,” said Crystal. “We have been over it a hundred times, tweaked it here and there, but quite frankly, it’s not working.”
“What happens when you do the training?” I asked.
“Everyone seems upbeat, like they understand. We even do classroom exercises, but it doesn’t seem to stick. Two weeks later, they are back to doing it the old way, with all kinds of excuses.”
“How much coaching do you do after the initial training?”
“Well, anyone who seems to be having trouble, we write them up and they go back to the next training.” Crystal was visibly upset as she described what happens next. “Sooner, or later, they all get written up and so they all end up back in the training. We put this software in place eight months ago and they still write the orders on paper and put the information into the computer later. Sometimes the paper gets lost or it takes a day or two to catch up. We want real-time order entry, but we are nowhere close.”
“So, there is no real coaching except for sending people back to the beginning?”
“Yes, and every time we go round, the push-back gets stronger. They seem to hate the training,” Crystal said, shaking her head.
“I don’t think this is a training problem. And, if it’s not a training problem, what do you think the problem is?”
Good day;
I believe it is probably the way the training is presented and who is providing the training.
The training should be presented as enjoyable and if the employee knows he/she will get written up, then that is a issue right there.
Additionally, everyone does not learn the same way – different learning curve as some of them take longer to absorb the knowledge than others.
People learn by doing, but in a test environment it is different than the real environment, I would suggest the trainers sit with the person on the floor doing the work, so they understand the reality of what is happening with that person as the people understand how the system works, my observation is that the trainers don’t understand what the person doing the work is up against and the multitasking it may take to get that information entered into the system.