Business Technology

Enlightened Education
How you train determines how much return you’ll receive from technological investments

There are many computer programs available to help facility services and housekeeping professionals track and manage their operations. But to get the most out of any new software or hardware technology, managers need to come up with a good training strategy.

The current mindset of managers in many organizations is to purchase and install new technology, send the users to classroom training, have them lug a heavy manual or two back to the office or shop, and then expect the users to immediately start using the new tool. While this approach is common, it also is the most ineffective. Experience shows that people generally retain very little from classroom training, and they later have difficulty finding information in the user manual.

Fortunately, the remedy to this all-too-familiar scenario is right at your fingertips, and you can adapt it to work for any technology, from word processors to vacuum cleaners. In fact, when employees and managers make two very important commitments to a learning strategy, the success rate of the new technology rises. Build these two commitments into your implementation plan so you can achieve maximum effectiveness.

Self-directed learning makes sense in that each user tailors a learning routine to meet his or her needs. As a result, employees waste little time on topics they don’t need and instead focus intently on the topics they must use regularly or that they have difficulty mastering.

To make this approach effective, the employees must commit to actively learning the new technology, while the employer or manager must allow the user to spend company time in self-directed learning endeavors. The payoff comes when the employees avoid the frustration and headaches so often associated with learning a new system and when the employer gains productivity as a result of correct and thorough use.

While you always should emphasize self-directed learning, realize that some situations and technologies may require preliminary classroom training.

Develop a deliberate, systematic process for learning the new technology rather than making a helter-skelter dash to gain the knowledge only after an urgent need for that feature arises. The three fundamental steps any such process must follow are:

1. Assess the resources available to you.
   Every company has numerous resources available for training purposes. Determine which are available to you and identify those that are the most beneficial for your employees’ needs. Some typical resources to consider include:

• Vendor- or manufacturer-provided training
  
  
• Third-party training (may be included with the product’s purchase)
  
  
• Self-study (especially for software), which can range from using the “help” feature to using available tutorials that come with an item.
  
  
• Manufacturer Web sites often offer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) areas, software patches and updates, troubleshooting, tips, articles and newsletter subscriptions.
  
  
• Manuals may be available online or as a hardcopy book that comes with the technology. While many manuals are notoriously poorly written, they’re worth a look.
  
  
• People sources include help desk personnel (if your company has one), manufacturer’s toll-free support lines, online user chat groups with support people, online forums where you post questions and receive answers from technicians, and other users within your company or in another company. Also, manufacturers sometimes sponsor user groups you can join.
  

1. Rank the resources in order of usefulness.
   Your individual ranking will depend on your company culture, the users’ learning preferences, and many other variables. This is your opportunity to create a custom plan, so take advantage of it.
   
   
2. Make or allow time to use the resources.
   Always exercise discipline. It’s natural to want to rush in and start using a new technology, but the resulting trial and error is usually counter-productive. Users must be willing to spend time learning from the various resources. Likewise, employers and managers must allow the learning process to unfold; you can’t expect instant results. When you incorporate time for learning into the implementation plan and schedule, you give your employees the best chance for information comprehension and retention.
   

Need an answer to a quick question, but you’re not sure who to ask, and your own Internet searches come up empty? Try your luck at Google Answers.

The site, answers.google.com, allows users to register and post questions on any topic, ranging from how to program a speed dial to explanations of the origins of the universe. Askers also set the price, anywhere from $2.50 on up, generally selecting higher prices for more difficult questions.

Registered researchers then peruse the questions and will choose to answer one if the price is right. A good answer could include several links to Web sites for more information. Users can add comments, rate answers or ask for a refund if the results were unsatisfactory. One caveat: Although researchers have gone through a screening process, they aren’t experts in every field, so any law- or safety-related information they give shouldn’t be taken as binding legal advice.

There have been a few cleaning-related questions posted to the site — one user wanted to find an environmentally friendly carpet cleaning firm in Baltimore, and another needed to find out how to care for leather furniture. But housekeeping managers looking to make a few extra dollars as researchers are out of luck — even though the site still is in beta testing, the response to the initial call for researchers was so great the company isn’t accepting new applicants. (Try again in a few months.)