Help .....

I posted a question about training on the careers forum but have yet to receive any replies so I thought I would try here as well.

I am new to the role of Training Co-ordinator and also now have a new boss who wants me to be involved in putting together a 'wizzy, wacky' training programme for our staff. Our business revolves around customer service and our culture is very focused on how much we can do for our customers - we love hug and squeeze our customers and need to hangon tight to this culture whilst training the massive numbers of new staff coming through the door each week.

I have been tasked with re-writing our induction, looking at what other successful companies, similar to us, have done with their training - basically I really do not have the time to re-invent the wheel, if you know what I mean!

Can anyone help - any ideas. We want to keep our training in-house as much as possible, but if you have been involved in anything like this before, I would really appreciate talking to you. If you work for companies such as Virgin, First Direct or Capital One, I would really like to hear from you as well.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

Thank you

Hi Su,

Can't really comment about other companies' inductions, but from personal experience (when I worked for a big company :-) one of the biggest training benefits was the simple fact that I got a chance to meet people from other offices. Under normal circumstances I might never have met them, so induction and core training provided an opportunity to get to know people.

On the other hand, it's important to realise that training should only be offered when it is going to add some value to either the employee's careers or their productivity with regard to their jobs. So, there's no point putting someone on a course just to 'put a tick in a box' if that course is of no relevance.

Where induction is concerned, though, I assume you mean basic training, which will offer candidates at least a certain, known, competency within the organisation. If it's pretty basic, you probably want to make it fun as it may well be 'teaching Granny to suck eggs' for some people.

I personally believe that a successful training strategy is borne of timely, well-matched courses and seminars relating to an individual, not a role. The success of training is as much a factor of the company's attitude to training as it is to the quality of thetraining itself - after all, many companies insource/outsource training to third parties, e.g. QA training, Learning Tree, etc., and gain differing results.

A positive organisational attitude to training will rub off onto staff. If training is offered grudgingly, it can demotivate. But be warned, training for training's sake is perhaps a 'cul de sac' off the road to happy, skilled and motivated personnel.

I don't think this answers your question as such, but at least it gives you perhaps an alternative viewpoint.

John

Welcome Su.

You used the phrase 'wizzy, wacky' to describe the programme (thanks for spelling that properly!) you have been asked to put together.

It occurs to me that what you are describing there is not the programme itself but the manner in which it is being delivered or executed.

As with any training programme what you have to do first is construct your objectives – i.e. what do you want your people to LEARN from the programme. This is NOT the place for wizzy etc its simplebasic and kinda boring but absolutely essential.

So, lets give you an example.

Your training objective is that you need your new people to learn to how to relate to customers so that customers never feel they are left alone.

One way of driving that message home is to have your training in a place where there is lots of furniture...

You split all the people into teams of two. You place sets of post-its (numbered 1-5) all over the place. One person is blindfolded and their partner has to guide them around all the obstacles , by voice alone, to where each of the post-its are located.

There can be NO touching and NO movement of furniture. Once all the pots-its are collected by the first lot the roles are reversed. You put the post-its out in different places and make the second person in each team go through the same thing.

Once all back, you ask people how they feel and what they felt during the exercise. They will never forget what its like to be alone and blind…

So, you can see from this its very important to separate out your training objective from the ‘how’ you do it. Wizzy and wacky apply ‘only’ to the how!

Once you’ve decided on ‘what’ you need to put across, I feel that asking for innovative and inventive ways of doing it will generate more responses for you.

My advice is, don’t do the same as other companies. Their things work only because of their culture. What you do has to be sustainable. If you do something in your training, but the day-to-day behaviour in the rest of the business does not embrace it, it will be a complete waste of time and effort. Moreover it will be a de-motivator for the individuals involved. What you do has to reflect the way you are as a business.

Hope this has helped. Go for it.

David

Hi Su,

Don't you just love it when you get all the best jobs? OK seriously training is a core need for centres but more importantly it's a core need for staff who are new as it will determine how LONG they stay.

Wizzy, wacky etc. only works when you have the core message or outcomes to head towards, not as a gimick to cover inadequate training in the first place.

My advice is to read up / research on NLP, accelerated learning techniques, and then build this around your programme to reinforce the message not deliver it.

When I design a programme I start by asking the questions "What am I trying to achieve by doing this?" and "How will I know if it's been successful?" Until you can answer those you can't train as you have no idea of where you are going or whether it worked.

If you already have some programmes look through them and see if you can answer those questions if not throw them away and start again (sorry, I know thats not what you wanted to hear!).

One of my biggest keys to success in training call centre staff is self realisation; they have to buy into and own the outcomes, if not they will never take them onboard and use them. There are some very clever ways of doing this and usually it starts by peaking curiosity and slowing building one level at a time then finishing where you started to show a full picture and they can see how all the skills you just covered link together to reinforce / build on each other.

There is nothing worse than going through training and walking out wondering what it was all about.....

Not sure if I have helped but there's heaps of info on NLP and training techniques on the web.

Regards

Craig

Hi Su - I have been working on much the same task as you describe - basically trying to train without putting the trainees to sleep but still giving them all the tools and info they need to do the job. I have done quite a bit of research on accelerated learning, and have found a few ideas that have been effective in my training classes. 1) Use music. I have participants write commercial 'jingles' to already existing tunes (carols, Beatles stuff, whatever) to reinforce concepts. They have a ball and the whole class sings in unison every once in a while when we are discussing that concept. Very quick, ewasy and fun; takes no more than a few minutes. 2) Puzzles can be great. (You can use a similar idea with mobiles.) Take a picture of whatever you think pertains in some way to training - I have often used a pic of a classroom, or a train station. Glue the picture to construction paper, and cut it into puzzle pieces. Put them in an envelope. As various components of a topic are covered, have the trainees draw a piece out of the envelope and on the construction paper side (without turning the piece over) write the name or title of the component. For example, in customer service training, you could have them write things like 'courtesy,' 'professionalism,' 'promptness,' and the like. Have them try to fit pieces together as each bit is discussed, but without ever turning over the pieces. Once all the pieces are in place, they get to turn the puzzle over and see the picture. With a mobile, same kind of concept;they will not be able to balance the mobile and have it hang decently until all the pieces are in place.
Just a couple of ideas! Have fun!

Hi Su

Hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to add a bit too.

During your training ensure you bring to the fore the positive impact on other human beings (customers) of doing the job well.

I have yet to meet a person employed in this industry who goes to work WANTING to do a bad job. By ensuring that your people are aware of the ‘consequences’ of doing the job both well and poorly (from the customers perspective NOT the companies) you will do more than you can imagine.

I remember one lady who had worked in a CC for 7 years (a life time in my view). The day we took her through the consequences of her current working practices she was forever changed. She had simply never looked at the consequences of what she said and how she said it on the people that she spoke to day in day out.

If someone can go that long without knowing just think what other opportunities lurk…

David