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Technology Training: Empowering your Employees and Enhancing Your Bottom Line

Over the last few months, I have written articles about how companies can save money and become more efficient by taking a deeper look at their IT (Information Technology) infrastructure. An often overlooked component of optimizing IT is investing in employees and their ability to use the technology as efficiently as possible. A training initiative, when implemented properly, can reduce the amount of IT time used in troubleshooting everyday problems, and empowers employees to be more productive through an expanded knowledge of the technologies in use at your organization. A comprehensive training program that is integrated into your company’s business and mission will achieve a rapid ROI and enhance your bottom line. 

• Not all employees have the same technology skill set, nor should one assume an employee just “knows how to use it.” Create a survey and solicit input from all employees to find out where they are spending their time and what technology they are having trouble with (software and hardware).

• A well-structured survey should be developed jointly between your IT staff or IT support company and your management team. This will ensure the questions are technically relevant and focused on the technologies needed to further your organizations goals.

• Avoid singling out specific groups or individuals for the survey. In some cases, employees are afraid to ask for help, and a companywide survey will alleviate any concern they may be singled out due to a lack of understanding or training. 

• From the surveys, you will find common issues among all of your staff. Based on this information, you can prioritize areas to address. 

• Avoid lumping multiple unrelated training issues together, and be prepared to individually identify each area that a training program would benefit.

• Take the time to identify is what knowledge gaps can be addressed through training, and which may be IT issues that have to be resolved. Sometimes, the survey may identify a technical obstacle or limitation. In those cases, the task is better assigned to the IT department for technical resolution and addressed separately from any technology training. 

• Once a determination is made of what areas to address, a short term and long term training plan needs to be created. Short term training plans would include 1-3 meetings to find out the current skill set of employees, go over the basics of technology in every day use, and address the more popular problems employees are encountering.

• A long term training plan would entail ongoing support for employees. As mentioned, not all employees have the same skill set, nor do all employees learn in the same fashion or same rate. By having a long term/ongoing training plan, employees can feel comfortable in the fact that they do not need to learn everything in a single cram session. Employees can ask thoughtful questions between sessions and identify areas that might not have been addressed during a previous training session.

• Unless you plan to develop a training program in-house, you will want to identify a reliable partner to provide the necessary training resources. Take the time to interview training companies and see what resources they can bring to the table. In many instances, a complete training package can be provided through your training partner and customized from your assessment.

• You have made a significant investment in your organization’s technology resources already. Why not utilize these resources for training as well? Too often, training sessions are being performed in a conference room or lab. 

• Employees understand the material and process, but when they return to their work area, it will be difficult to apply what they have learned because the training had little hands-on interaction. Most employees learn best in familiar environments, for example, their own desk. 

• Using remote technology for training, such as a conference call and web-based training can be valuable and cost effective. Your training partner will ideally have resources available for remote training, either as a focal point or for ongoing retention of new information. If you properly utilize remote technologies for training, costs will be held to a minimum because on-site trainers or travel expenses to an off-site seminar will be reduced or eliminated. 

• Any comprehensive training program should be viewed as an ongoing process to help your company be more productive and operate more efficiently. Periodic assessments will help your company find out if the training program is successful in accomplishing it’s goals, uncover new areas employees need to be trained in, and understand what environment is most conductive to employee learning.

• There will always be questions and concerns that employees will have on an ongoing basis. Instead of repeating formal training sessions to fill in small gaps on an ongoing basis, it may be wise to develop a library of “how to’s” so employees can reference the material as needed. At TekTegrity, we have designed over 30 simple 2 minute “how to tutorial” videos and cheat sheets so employees and clients can address everyday computer problems. 

• To be successful, your training program needs to have buy-in from your staff. Training should not be considered as “more work” by your employees, but rather an investment the company is making in them.

• Your HR department should be fully engaged in any training program. Ideally, your training program is integrated with your company’s ongoing evaluation policies and successful completion of training milestones will result in higher evaluation scores.

• Consider a rewards system for successful completion of training tasks, such as individual recognition, plaques, or gift cards. 

• Nobody knows technology better than the technology folk. Utilize the resources at hand, either your internal technology team or local IT company. In most cases, IT teams intuitively know key areas that would benefit from training and help employees operate more efficiently. In conjunction with a trainer, IT staff can work to develop a training plan that caters to the exact needs of your company. In addition, some IT companies offer training resources and programs, or have close partnerships with technology training organizations.