Why attention to detail matters in training
When training others, preparation is crucial. The more time and effort you put in, the better the personal and business outcomes will be. I cannot stress enough how spending time on preparation is time well spent. Paying attention to every tiny detail as you plan and prepare the content of a training session will reward you and your organisation.
Whether you’re training one person or a group of 20, heading in to lead a training session underprepared is a waste of everyone’s time and effort. You need to understand who you are training, what their training needs are, and what the desired results are - for the business and the people attending.
In this blog, we’ll explore how to find the answers to these questions, highlight the benefits of training people well, and look at the before, during and after of preparing a training session.
The benefits of training people well
Investing in employee training and development may come at significant financial cost (there are cost effective solutions available, which I’ll come on to later). While there are no guaranteed returns on investment, in our experience training is rewarded in the form of several other business benefits.
Recruitment advantage: a good training and development offer proves you care about your employees and take the time to support and guide your team to success. This can become a competitive advantage when recruiting new employees and may be an attractive reason to remain in the organisation.
Training breeds success: when you train people properly they become more productive and are more likely to feel confident and succeed in their role.
Customer feedback: the confidence that comes from robust, well prepared training filters down to your customers, deepening their connection to your organisation.
Reward and recognition: training a set of expected service standards and measuring performance against them gives a team something to strive for. It means an organisation can recognise and reward strong performance against the standards, which can be highly motivating and boost engagement.
Now let’s look at the before, during and after of preparing to train colleagues.
What to do before you train a colleague
When I am preparing to deliver a training programme, I meet with the client to ask them lots of detailed questions based around the who, what, and why of training. The client’s responses inform the development of programme content and allow me to tailor the training to their desired business outcomes.
It is understanding the detail that drives up service standards, from the specifics of how to fold a perfect napkin to the correct words to use when welcoming a customer to your premises. Attention to detail matters and will make your business stand out from the crowd.
What to focus on during training
The more detail you include when training another person, the higher the standard they will perform at. It’s important to prepare well to ensure all aspects of what they need to know are covered. This sends a clear message to team members that you, and your team, work to exceptional standards.
Here are six questions to inform what to focus on during a training session:
What are they doing?
Why are they doing it?
How do they do it?
What are the benefits of doing it well?
What are the consequences of not doing it well or getting it wrong?
Who else needs to be involved?
The way we approach this at Zest for Life is by considering the five senses. What does good look, sound, feel, smell, and taste like, for each individual task? For example, taste, smell and presentation are key for a chef or a mixologist, so describe each of these in detail. Learn about using the five senses to achieve exceptional service standards.
As the session moves on, allow participants plenty of time to test their learning. Ask questions and observe how they progress in this safe learning environment. Praise colleagues for their efforts and recognise when they might need your guidance. By the end, they need to feel confident and assured in what they’ve learnt, and be able to answer the six questions set out above for any given task.
After the training is over
A trainer’s job is not done when the training session is over. Feedback and evaluation are an important part of measuring the programme’s success against colleague and business objectives.
Then, as the colleagues you have trained go out into the business to put their newfound skills and knowledge to the test, it may also be part of your role to observe and monitor progress to make sure your trainees are on the right track and reward positive performance.
People development through Train the Trainer
Exploring the stages of preparing, delivering and evaluating a training programme is all part of our three-day Train the Trainer development programme. As you can see, training others is not just about having the knowledge, you have to prepare well and be able to distil your skills and knowledge into bite-sized information easily absorbed by others. In the programme we cover the stages of building a training session, including how to plan, prepare, write and deliver training for colleagues. If you or someone in your team has an aptitude for training, could this be an objective to set and focus on for the second half of the year? Book a discovery call with Sally to learn more.