IT education drives employee retention, recruiting
Recruiting and retaining good people is a never-ending challenge, one made more daunting by the explosion of new technology.
Employees overburdened with daily tasks often bristle at the announcement of new software or systems designed to streamline processes and enhance productivity. To many, it’s another giant hairball that will further complicate their jobs.
Perceived IT negatives can be transformed into positives if a company is willing to enlighten its people about the technology’s overarching value and contribution to a happier work environment, educate about features and benefits, and enlist employee support.
Spur enthusiasm by creating a marketing campaign around the new IT initiative, reinforced by ongoing sales-oriented presentations by executives, managers and IT people.
Follow up with effective hands-on training and ongoing help desk resources. The Corporate Leadership Council emphasizes that 40 percent of integration and retention of new hires is dependent upon support—with training being a key component.
Lack of ongoing IT support is analogous to being sold a bells-and-whistles-laden cell phone without any follow-up educational reinforcement. Once the glow of buying a new toy wears off, frustration with learning its functionality sets in—which is why many cell phone users only scratch the surface of what their phones can do.
Employees must do more than scratch the surface when it comes to learning new technology. Training must be approached comprehensively to be effective:
- Customized and relevant. Information that accounting may want to see in a document management solution may differ substantially from marketing department needs. When thinking about customization and relevance, the trainer needs to consider both the group, and individual participants.
- Convenient. This applies both to scheduling—time of day and length of session—and mode of training. People preoccupied with pressing work matters likely will be distracted with being out of the office and will learn less. To the fullest extent possible, training should be structured with schedules in mind.
- Challenging. Make the training challenging enough to hold interest, without going over everyone’s head. Challenges can come in a variety of forms—from the subject matter itself to inventive ways to use it in the marketplace.
- Absorbed, not just received. Lacking true learning, people go back to their jobs—where they will do everything they can to circumvent the technology because they still don’t understand it, and think of it as just another hassle.
Repetition (people must do something 12 times to make it a habit), work simulations, and extensive after-training support to deal with ongoing concerns and issues are critical to training success.
Tags: IT Management, Training
