Just one of those divisions, and I think it’s a BIG one, is language….-LANGUAGE: The trainer knows a language that is foreign to the brand new employee. And they know it at a very high level. The trainer got to be in that position because they know the job very well.
–DIVISION: The new employee knows nothing. If you use words like POS, they probably don’t know you mean point of sale. So here’s a great example. The trainer says to the trainee, “You clock in everyday at the POS station. You’ll just swipe your card and then input your password. Make sure you don’t clock in until 5 minutes before the start of your shift.”
–TRAINING RESULT: Here’s what happens in the trainee’s mind. “What the heck is a POS? I wonder when I get this card? Swipe where? Am I supposed to already know my password? Crap, I wonder what happens if I accidentally clock in 7 minutes before my shift? What have I gotten myself into!?”
So before you’ve even begun to train the job the new employee is wondering if they can even get clocked in. The trainer must follow up this “tell” process with a “show” and then “do” action. When training, it is so important to continue to check for understanding. And don’t simply ask if they got it. No one wants to look stupid. They will say yes they understand to avoid looking dumb. When you check for understanding literally have the employee “do” what you are teaching. Confidence is built when understanding turns into successful action. And by the way, doing it wrong is a step in the right direction as long as the trainer is there to support and help the trainee get it right. I hope that made sense.
Taking the example above, a good trainer hands the new employee their employee card. She explains that this card is their ID card for the center. It is private and only to be used by the new employee. We are going to walk over to the Point of Sale-we usually just refer to it as the POS. Once you arrive at the POS the trainer can point to the “swipe” and ask the new employee to swipe their card in a single swiping motion. At this time, since it’s the first time they’ve used their card, the software is going to ask for a private password. This is a great time to let the new trainee know that their card nor their password information should ever be shared with another employee. You can talk about cash control and attendance rules and procedures. Finally it’s time to address clocking in 5 minutes prior to your shift and explain that payroll and time on the clock is carefully managed in order to balance to the profitability of the business. Clocking in earlier is only permitted in the case of management approval and could happen if the business demanded there be extra service staff and you happened to be here early.
Let the new employee go through each motion. And ask, “So share with me what you heard about anyone else using your card and the timing of clocking in?” Wait for their response and then move on to the next training initiative.
I know this might seem pretty elementary. But honestly, it’s worth the extra time. I know that for me personally when I rush something I’m trying to teach it’s always a recipe for misunderstanding. And you will have to go back and reteach which usually involves un-training the way the new employee figured out how to do whatever they were doing wrong in order to get by.
Next week I’ll talk about changing behaviors of existing employees. Fundamentally I think this is much more difficult than training new team members. What do you think?
