Training for the Future

Have you noticed that we are currently in a professional environment that expects people to come completely prepared? Job postings now have a litany of skills and requirements that almost seem too good to be true. Many companies are foregoing training and development by attempting to hire the person who fulfills their every need. Yet this can lead to unfulfilled employees and turnover. Why?

Because the person was hired for skills only – not how they fit within the company culture or if there was a growth path for that person. Truly, the best way to ensure you have the best people is to hire them based on soft skills, attitudes and traits that align with your organization.  Find the most pronounced skill set for the position, and then you simply train for the future.

OK, so now you are probably wondering how do you train for the future. What does that even mean?

It’s simple – Re-engage, Re-motivate and Re-align. Particularly when creating solid knowledge transfer systems for atHome agents, it is critical to create a communication cycle that ensures you are constantly in touch with your agents, giving them the best information and stoking the fires of their already excellent skills and traits.

Training for the future means you must continually be in touch with your team. There is no place for basic training and then “see ya later.” Creating a system that encompasses training, quality and operations is the only way to develop a platform that creates success for the team, the customer and the client. Then, you must understand the three Re’s:

Re-engage – One and done is no way to really develop your team. Continually engaging in knowledge transfer through a combined effort of training and quality will ensure your team stays in tip top shape.

Re-motivate – Sometimes all an agent, or even the team, needs is a little motivation. Create a communication loop that provides feedback so your quality and training team both understand the difference between a challenge with motivation and a challenge understanding the product or service. Motivation requires a different set of techniques that embrace the agents where they are and give them some good old fashioned enthusiasm!

Re-align – Get good information through quality assurance, get the training team involved in appropriate types of training, and get the team re-aligned with goals and customer experience metrics. This sounds simple but is so often overlooked, especially during times when the agents are extra busy. That is the time to re-align the team and the customers to get that amazing customer experience!

Engage, motivate and align are the benchmarks of a good educational system. Continuing that process creates an excellent system.  It just takes a little effort and the desire to develop your people into a top notch team!