Antagonizing your employees reduces the success and growth of the business
The most important assets of a company are the people!
Your staff should be socially and professionally mentored. Create a non-threatening environment; establish a relationship with the newcomer. Find appropriate time and engage in conversation with the newcomer, asking about his/her family, hobbies and interests, and don't forget to share your own. Professional business settings are comprised of human beings, so act like one...and treat the newly hired person as you would like to be treated. Rather than trying to change the personality of the individual, focus on training skills that can be taught and learned, a co-worker can be a valuable resource person, for the newcomer, bridging gaps that all newly hired individual’s experience.
It's imperative that the individual providing the training have the necessary skills to be effective, provide/create a written training manual that contains specific instructions and reference information. It will be a valuable resource for the new employee and will hasten his/her success during the learning period.
For example, suppose that you are responsible for a call centre, whose duties involves contact with customers through phone calls, If he/she is naturally introverted (a trait) don't try to convince him/her to be more extroverted (a trait) in order to help you sell. Instead, train him/her how to listen actively (a skill) and how to use terminology customers will understand (a skill).
It results better if you teach employees skills that you're certain will produce tangible results, within the context of that employee's job. For example, if a sales team consists of “hunters” (who find new business) and “farmers” (who develop existing accounts), it's wasteful to train everybody on the team on cold-calling techniques. Limit such training to the hunters and provide training in other skills (like account management) to the “farmers”.
Whenever you train a skill, provide multiple opportunities to check on how well that employee is executing that skill and provide coaching as necessary.
Learning a new skill entails making it into a habit. Unfortunately, doing so usually involves overcoming existing habits, which is inherently difficult. Coaching allows you gradually reinforce the skill and overcome the habits it replaces.
Effectively training your employees can improve your chances of success and business growth.
Developing your staff and improving their skills can:
- Increase their productivity and quality of work
- Increase overall profits
- Improve employee motivation
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Give you a competitive advantage
- Reduce staff turnover and absenteeism
- Help you adapt to change and prepare for growth
- Enable you to reach new markets overseas
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