In the ever evolving start-up landscape, staff training is more than just a box ticking exercise, it’s an essential part of ensuring that every member of your team is able to meet the needs of your business.
However, staff training can often be seen as a bore, with dull presentations and little minimal enthusiasm and engagement.
Luckily, there are steps you can take to make staff training more enjoyable for your team, and here are just five tips to help you get started.
1. Gamify the Experience.
Turning staff training into a game with prizes to be won is a fantastic way to make the experience more entertaining.
With platforms such as Flexiquiz, you can design your own quizzes with questions related to your start up, helping you to track knowledge in a way that doesn’t send your employees to sleep.
Monitor results in real time and dish out small rewards to winners at the end of every round to keep them eager to keep going.
2. Make it Interactive.
Rather than having your team sit and listen to long lectures, consider making the training an interactive experience.
Get them started on role play scenarios that allow them to act out how they’d react in situations and learn from each other.
Its also important to encourage your team to ask questions, not only can this make them feel more engaged, but you may find that they spot an issue that you haven’t identified, allowing you to make adjustments to your business operations.
3. Bring in Guest Speakers.
Introducing fresh perspectives can be a great way to ensure your staff receive well rounded training, and meeting industry experts can help motivate them to new heights.
Reach out to those you’ve previously met at conferences, or connected with on platforms such as LinkedIn, and ask if they’d like to come in and speak to your team.
Consider making it as informal as possible, as this way your staff will feel more relaxed and open to asking questions they may be too afraid to in a lecture setting.
4. Encourage Peer Learning.
Everyone possesses their own unique set of skills and experiences, and that means that everyone at your start up, even the newest recruit has the potential to teach something to someone else.
With peer learning, your team can learn from each other, and more importantly, you can learn from them. This will give you the chance to not only make your start up the best it can be, but turn you into a more informed, skilled, and trusted manager.
5. Use Real Life Feedback.
When training is all hypothetical, it may not stick as easily in the minds of your team, however when you use real life feedback that customers left on platforms such as Trustpilot as training case studies, they can see how their new knowledge will apply specifically to your brand.
Not only will this make each member of your team better able to address the problems of real customers, but also give new insights into how these problems could have been resolved by other members of staff.
Have you found ways to make staff training for your start up more engaging? Share your tips in the comments below!