People only remember 10 percent of what they read, but 90 percent of what they do, according to Fred Haskett of The Harvest Group. Haskett shared his tips for developing a well-trained workforce at GIE+EXPO.
There are five ways people learn, he said. “Your job as the trainer is to figure out what combinations work for your people and your subject matter.”
Turnover is higher than ever and it’s not going to get better, so you’re going to have new people coming into the mix all the time, so training is more important than ever, he said.
Here are the five ways people learn, according to Haskett:
1. Doing
In this method, you’re putting them out on the job.
“They perform the job in the same way with the same equipment,” Haskett said. “You don’t have a separate set of training stuff that’s new. Don’t create an artificial training process. Make sure it’s consistent with what they’re going to be doing. That’s what’s going to make sense to them when you turn them loose out there.”
2. Thinking
“It’s not a bad thing to create some obstacles in the training process that they have to solve,” Haskett said. He suggested setting up scenarios for people to solve such as mowing a slope or fixing a plant that’s been planted too deep.
Your employees are going to run into problems so it’s better for them to learn how to fix them early on. Also, be sure you’re training in a crew because that’s how they’re going to be working.
3. Seeing
This can be done either by observing a task being done or by looking at pictures, videos, charts, illustrations or observing real objects. “You want to create the most realistic situations you can in training because then it resonates,” Haskett said.
4. Being told
In this method, you’re giving written or spoken words.
“Trainers also have to be calm. They have to relax so that you don’t have to hear,” Haskett said. “You have to be friendly and patient.” Telling someone you’ve told them something already isn’t helping
5. Being checked and corrected
“People are going to inevitably make mistakes,” Haskett said. “The mistakes are good because it gives you an idea of where to go in the training as long as you don’t yell at them.”
You have to pay attention to all of the moving parts when you’re doing this, otherwise you’re enforcing a bunch of bad habits.
Haskett said show, do, watch, coach is the right way to do training. The same process can be used for your crews and your back-office folks.
Here are his 12 steps for training employees:
Step 1 – Tell them what you want them to learn. You need to explain what you’re going to train on.
Step 2 – Tell them why they need to learn it.
Step 3 – Have the employee explain what and why we do this specific process or procedure.
Step 4 – Demonstrate to the trainee the specific process or procedure.
Step 5 – Have the trainee demonstrate the process or procedure.
Step 6 – Watch what they do.
Step 7 – Coach them and explain what they did right and what they did wrong.
Step 8 – Tell them how to improve.
Step 9 – Have them re-demonstrate the process or procedure with the corrections you demonstrated.
Step 10 –Observe the trainee re-demonstrating.
Step 11 – Explain what he or she did right and what needs to be corrected.
Repeat steps 8, 9 and 10 until it’s done.
Step 12 – Praise for the trainee on their successful accomplishment.