How to train an employee faster ?

Picking up new skills is an indispensable skill in the workplace today. Gone are the days when an employee could survive (even thrive) in a job by doing the same things over and over with no change. With constant changes in the corporate, technological and social milieu, it is simply impossible to survive without learning new skills.

This brings us to the obvious question – how to train an employee faster ? In a world where time is money, the sooner the employee picks up the necessary skills, the more profitable it is for the employee as well as the employer.

So what can an employer/manager do to get an employee trained faster ?

• Check for fit: Before even letting an employee embark on new learning, a manager should check for a fit between the employee’s natural ability and the nature of the new job. Does the new learning require skills that are completely antithetical to an employee’s natural abilities? Would the employee be better off doing something else ? Managers are naturally trained at identifying weaknesses and gaps and addressing those. However, they often miss out on an employee’s natural strengths and fail to use those. If you have an Albert Einstein in your team, wouldn’t it be smarter to let him work on particle physics instead to trying to train him to be a zoologist?

Now, let’s assume that a manager has already checked for a fit between the employee’s natural skills and the nature of the job. What next ?

• Motivate: This is truly the most important requirement to get an employee to learn faster. Without this, it is virtually impossible to get the employee to focus on learning anything new. Learning something new is a process of change, and there is always a natural inertia that resists change. Motivation is required to overcome the resistance. The learner needs to be convinced of the importance of learning, and the rewards thereof. And it is the responsibility of the manager to ensure that motivation is in good supply. A manager should not assume that the employee will learn spontaneously. Is there enough reward to motivate the employee to learn something new? Higher the motivation, faster the learning and better the results.

• The right level of pressure: Some employees need pressure – they even thrive on it. Some employees feel resentful and frustrated when pressurized. The manager needs to identify what works in each case and create the right level of pressure (or the absence of it)

• Resources: The right resources should be made available to the learner – learning materials, instructors, peer groups etc. And it is important to remember that time is a resource too. In a hurry to get employees trained faster, managers should not take shortcuts and impose unreasonable targets. Such targets could frustrate employees, cause burnout or may necessitate costly re-work. Even worse, it may lead to employees quitting their job.

• Chunking: An employee faced with a new project/job role might feel overwhelmed at the magnitude of the task that lies ahead. Breaking up a big project/learning activity into small, manageable chunks is a great way to prevent an employee from getting overwhelmed. Skilled managers are very good at breaking up a complex project into manageable portions, with clear milestones along the way. Chunking thus eliminates or minimizes learning anxiety. When the anxiety is minimized, the learning happens faster.

• Identifying the employee’s learning style: It is common knowledge that different people learn through different methods. Some learn by reading, some by doing. A good manager should let the employee learn in a manner that suits the latter’s natural inclination.

• Rapport: If a manager has a good rapport with an employee in his/her team, it certainly helps. Rapport is something built up over a period of time and not overnight. Good rapport facilitates clear, honest communication in an atmosphere of trust and respect. It allows the employee and the manager to talk frankly and fearlessly. Conversely, absence of a good rapport is a huge barrier to effective communication – and hence a barrier to learning.

Learning vs. Training

What is learning? Most people associate learning with a tangible skill – like driving, swimming, creating macros in Microsoft Excel, etc.

However, I believe that the term learning applies equally to a change in habit, a change in mindset or paradigm. It also applies to a change in perspective. This is a little hard to visualize for most people. For example, you will often hear people saying things like – “I have recently learnt Japanese” or “I have learnt how to drive a car”. But it is much rarer to hear a person say, “I have learnt to look at prison convicts in a new light” or “I have learnt to watch my temper and control it” or “I have learnt that my teenage son is a worthwhile person instead of an irritating nuisance”. This kind of learning is much harder to achieve because it requires a high level of self-awareness. Also, I like to use the term “learning” with reference to a new habit – for example, “I have learnt to exercise 3 times  a week on a regular basis” or “I have learnt to quit smoking”.

So, in summary, I like to use the word “learning” to describe a process of positive change – be it the acquisition of theoretical knowledge, or a tangible skill, a new habit or new perspective. 

How is “training” related to “learning” ? I see training as a means to achieve learning. In order to learn something, it is necessary to train or practice. For a short-tempered person to learn the habit of calmness, he needs to train himself to watch for the symptoms of a rising tantrum and train himself to manage his emotions.

However, learning can happen without training as well.  A child who gets his fingertip singed in a flame learns abruptly (and effectively) that fire is dangerous. The amateur stock market investor who risks his all on a particular gamble and ends up going bankrupt learns without training the importance of due diligence in investing.

Whether we realize it or not, we are learning all the time. Nature will ensure that learning happens –even if we resist it with all our might. By being humble, being proactive and by learning consciously, we can learn more, learn faster and learn more efficiently. Also, by learning consciously, we can avoid much of the pain involved in learning through hard knocks.

I love this line (I learnt it in my previous company!): The future belongs to those who learn.