One of the challenges I have encountered in corporate training is reinforcing product knowledge and developing critical thinking of our new hires. As I always tell my class, 20% of your product knowledge comes from the training room and 80% comes from actual experience. We equip them with the fundamental skills and knowledge needed for their job but it is up to them to put together and apply what they have learned. With the objective of bridging the gap between production/operations and training and improving productivity, I am exploring of ways that will reinforce what they have learned and develop critical thinking.
I posted this question in LinkedIn about a week ago to gather some thoughts on this from various experts. Here are some answers:
Michelle De La Isla If the corporation has products or services that the employees can try out onw way would be have group or individual "try outs or experiences" in which they can later on provide a report to other staff (at a meeting or during the training period) regarding the experience. It gives employees a sense of belonging and of ownership once they are assigned something and have to understand it well enough to impart to others. It also provides the trainer the opportunity to provide guidance or constructive criticism if the information conveyed is not accurate.
Andrew Calvert The answer lies in being able to take the every day situations that expose employees to product knowledge and help them get the best learning from them.
As a sales manager I have found a lunch and learn session to be effective - we take turns showcasing products we have learned about.
Another technique is joint sales calls to allow each other to learn from observing peers / managers / subordinates discuss products with customers.
Webinars from product managers on the intranet (or on an ipod) are other ways to send information to sales people.
Danielle Thurgood As a trainer, I have also struggled with this - how do I get the trainee to absorb as much as possible and remember it once they actually start doing the job? One of things I've found that has worked is games - a fun way to test the knowledge, and reintroduce concepts and information that can easily be forgotten when overwhelmed with so much. Team Teach - where the trainees have to teach the group about a product, or review the product / concept for the rest of the group is also effective. By doing so, you create mini experts in your new group - and they can then begin to rely on each other for information. This also helps to foster team cohesiveness.
Once their training is complete, are they 'dumped' right into the job, or are they given the opportunity to partner with an experienced member of their team, to listen and observe? And then to have them listen to them? This also works well, as they have an immediate resource if they are stuck, and they can see what knowledge they will need most often.
As for developing critical thinking - what about a refresher, to address complex scenarios and situations, once they've been on the floor actually doing the job for a week or two? This will allow them some comfort, and allow you to assess where they are at with their knowledge and experience. Presenting scenarios and asking them to assess and respond should assist them in making the correct decisions when the time comes.
Janette Toral I find mind maps and thinking tools to be helpful in this purpose. Deliver the training, create scenario (use mind map / thinking tools), discussion on insights and realization, and reinforce key points in training.
Raza Ali Thinking out loud, it may be the clear boundary between formal and informal training that is causing this issue. In other words the training and work do not overlap each other. Maybe a degree of hand-holding / on-the-job-formal-training ("apprenticeship"?) is desirable.
Another possible way of doing this can be that the trainer maintains close (offline) interaction with the trainees for the first week, then this interaction curves downwards over the month. During this "hand-off" period, learners share their experiences with the trainer (and other learners) and discuss challenges and solutions.
Robert Paul Ilbrink Just a few things I've played with in the past.
Assign a buddy (senior/experienced employees) to each new hire. This will certainly help the new hire to get through the first few days/weeks. After the product training, the buddy will be the mentor. (This can also be an excellent way to allow senior staff to get familiar with staff management activities and see how they cope with that.)
Require each delegate to write one short article that shows what they have learned about the product (beyond what they learned in training), about one month after the training. In a help desk situation, you can require each employee to write one learning moment each month. Here they would write what they encountered, what they did and what they could have done better. These documents can be used by their managers to better gage the "level" of their employees and (after they have been vetted by a senior employee) could be used to create the knowledge system for the other help desk members.
Don't forget the possibilities of performance related pay/income and link it to measurable performance objectives (piece of cake as you probably designed the training and should have the performance objectives.)
A friend also sent a private answer and suggested creating a collaborative FAQ with feedback mechanism.
Thank you, everybody, for your suggestions and thoughts on this. My next class starts this coming week and this would be a good opportunity to try your suggestions and post a feedback how things work out.
