Are Your Employees (or You) Clueless Even After Software Training Events?

NOT EVEN YOUR EMPLOYEES CAN DRINK SKILLS FROM A FIRE HOSE

Corporate managers have all seen it. The software training event. A day, perhaps several, of trying to drink from a fire hose of information.

Consultants and trainers enter. They cover the whole program. Overviews. Ten best features. Technical specs. FAQs. Common tasks. Hands-on tutoring. Maybe they even leave videos and help files behind.

It's a semester - at least a semester - of coursework in just a day or two.

But the fact is, your employees don't learn that way, even though they would love to. Their performance and productivity depend upon it. So do their raises and promotions. Even perhaps their jobs.

Complex skills can't be learned in a day. A consistent, small-chunk approach is a much better method.

TRY SMALL TUTORIALS IN EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTERS AND E-MAILS

One solution is to include small tutorials in your employee communications. Newsletters and e-mails are a perfect delivery vehicle for small chunks of software skills tutorials.

But will your employees read them? Learn from them? Use them? That depends on the answers to three questions: Is the information relevant? Is it engaging? And is it brief?

1. Is the information relevant?

The tutorials must be relevant to your employees' work. Not only from your perspective, but from theirs. Talk to them. Use surveys if necessary. Find the teachable content - the content your employees actually want to know. Include it in the newsletter, and they will read it - if the answer to other two questions is also "yes."

2. Is the information engaging?

If tutorial information is dry and technical, chances are that most users - assuming they are non-technical employees - will not find it engaging. Whoever writes the tutorial needs the heart of a good teacher. Good teachers know their audiences, respect them, and know how to reach them.

3. Is it brief?