Training Manuals With A Training Plan

Providing on the job training for employees is necessary for any business wanting to maintain a focus on both customer service and staff motivation, but what is a training manual and what should training manuals include?

An Employee Handbook is required to detail your policies and procedures. A Customer Service Manual will outline how your customer service skills are to be delivered and the Operations Manual with guide management in particular administration tasks. A Training Manual is dedicated to the training and development of staff at every stage of their employment.

Documenting Your Own Training Program

Taking on any new member of staff is a big investment on your part and to realise your best return on that investment warrants giving the training and induction process the time it deserves, particularly as staff turnover can be even more costly for a business.

Set out your training materials to consider the ‘life’ of the employee, such as;

1.             Recruitment

2.             Initial Trial

3.             Induction

4.             Probation

5.             On-Going

6.             Appraisals

7.             Termination

You may have your own preferred training methods but it’s important to be mindful that people all learn best in different ways, some only need be told, where other’s must be shown and naturally there is no substitute to actually doing the job, but sometimes this will not be possible to allow without a certain level of competency displayed at least in theory by using multiple training techniques to gain a safe understanding of what parts of the job will require.

Set a minimum standard for Foundational Training

To quickly and efficiently bring a new employee up to speed on the way you require them to perform as part of your team, breakdown each part of every task you expect every team member to be able to do, into their individual sub-tasks, with an allotment of time you expect anyone to do each job part in. This is your timing standards.

Use the buddy system

Make staff training & development the responsibility of every level of your team. Pair up anyone of a higher level with a new person during their induction period and block out 2 hours at a time together with several employees if possible in their first week to work through the Foundational Training Tasks, so that the job of staff inductions does not rest solely on management.