I expect you have similar thoughts and complaints as many of my clients around hiring and training staff.
“It’s hard to get good people.”
“I just spent 3 months training them and now they’ve left.”
“I keep having to train the same thing over and over again because people don’t last.”
“I’m sick of answering the same questions and having to repeat myself over and over.”
If this is familiar to you, there are some things you can do to make your life easier.
It starts with your recruitment process.
You need to be crystal clear about the role and the K.E.S.A.Q. (Knowledge, Experience, Skills, Attitude and Qualifications) required to succeed in the role.
You need to identify the critical “Must Have’s” and stick to that when interviewing and selecting people.
Before they start, develop a structured learning program so you and they know what they’re going to be learning and when.
Identify their preferred learning style (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic). In other words, do they prefer to read procedures or see things done, hear verbal instructions or just get in and have a go themselves? Yes, people can learn, even if it’s not their preferred style, however if you can train in their style, they will learn more quickly.
Have workflow diagrams available for your processes, so people can see the bigger picture and where their work fits into the overall process. This also helps with teamwork as people understand how their work impacts those whose tasks follow theirs.
Have your procedures documented in a way that is easy to understand and easy to find. If your team don’t know where or how to find procedures, they’ll complete their tasks to the best of their ability, but this may not be the way it’s meant to be done.
Finally, and possibly most importantly, check your mindset and your belief systems. If you believe good people are hard to find, guess what, that’s exactly what you’ll manifest.
If you expect that people can’t learn, that’s also what you’ll get.
You can lessen the burden of hiring and training staff (over and over again). Your team’s success is directly related to you personally as much as it is to the degree that you have your recruitment and training systems in place.
Your task this week, if you’re up for it, is to monitor yourself and audit your recruitment and training systems. If you find gaps, create a plan to fill the gaps and then start implementing the plan.
Let me know what you find.
P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thought delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts
.
