There are two levels of improving employee performance. The first is the macro level, in which you offer all employees extensive training to ensure they understand the business, goals, values, and job performance expectations. The second is the micro-level in which you offer personalized small-group or one-on-one training to allow each employee the opportunity to ask questions and gain clarification on how to do their job in the best way possible.
Here are four tips to enhance both macro- and micro-level employee coaching to improve productivity.
1. Create training videos.
Corporate training video production companies like COLDEA Productions make it easy for companies to create short training videos that are easy to watch and cover all the basics of a company, job, or position. These high-quality instructional videos can explain all of the general information that employees need to know, including the human resource information covering basic procedures and chain of command. These corporate training videos can be made available through a digital platform so that they can be watched independently to save time in the office. These videos can utilize live action or animation depending on the type of video you want. You can work with the video production team on a storyboard and edits. While they are not interactive, they are ideal for macro-level training.
2. Promote interaction.
IConnect offers coaching in the workplace solutions that utilize videos with interaction through a mobile app. Employees can take job-specific training, interact with their employers, and ask questions remotely. This uses an element of social learning that many young workers have grown accustomed to and is provided through a mobile app, which makes it readily available to everyone and can be tailored to specific positions. The more employees can interact during training, the more they will learn from each other, and it will benefit overall productivity.
3. Offer in-person training.
While mobile and video training is versatile and highly accessible, there is still value in in-person training. Namely, it is an excellent way for employees to get to know each other, learn from each other, and gain a sense of teamwork or even family. In-person training should be limited so they don’t take away from productivity time. However, offering employees a quarterly break that combines training and socialization is generally good for company morale. Some companies host annual conferences that give employees a chance to take classes of their choosing while also socializing and having fun. Planning conferences at fun locations at no cost to the employees will also boost morale.
4. Make individual coaching available.
Individual coaching should be made available for employees who are struggling with their job performance. Often, companies take a disciplinary approach to lacking job performance. However, it’s possible that the employee needs additional training or accommodations or is struggling personally and needs to step away. Without sitting down with that employee, it is impossible to know what is happening. The disciplinary approach may mean you are losing a great employee because you didn’t take the time to see if they need extra training or mentoring. If your company is one where people are paid on commission or incentives, offering free coaching will help them help themselves and create a long-term relationship with your team.
Employee coaching is always the best approach to increasing productivity. Employees are most productive when they have a sense of loyalty to their employer and share the same vision and goals. Employees work hard for employers they believe are working for them, which becomes a symbiotic relationship. Companies that experience high turnover and low productivity generally see replacing their employees as a good alternative to properly training them when there might be a better way.