We have run a small business for the past 35 years, and we’ve learned that when it comes to onboarding staff, you’re never quite done. Once you get someone trained and settled into their role, it’s time to hire and train someone else – either thanks to growth or due to typical turnover.
Most small businesses don’t have the luxury of a human resources manager on the team to handle the onboarding processes, which means it often falls to you, the owner, to show the ropes to the new team members. While that time can be an enjoyable opportunity to get to know your new colleague, it’s also critical that it goes quickly so that you can refocus to your main jobs of running and managing a small business.
Even if you’re not in a process of hiring, it can be a great challenge to retrain your existing staff with new expectations too. We’ve all been there – you throw out the new process or expectation in the staff meeting, and then proceed to feel like a broken record for the next month until it clicks for your team.
Small businesses using Retriever Digital Signage have an advantage when it comes to training their teams, because their screens are buying their owners hours back into their weeks.
Introductions & Orientation
If you have someone new joining your team, include photos of your team with their names and job roles in the Retriever playlist. It will save them several uncomfortable conversations as they try to orient themselves. You can also include important client photos with key information on your internal screens – this will serve as a great reminder for your new team members and help to bring them up to the level of your existing staff quickly, and potentially avoid some awkward missteps. If your business is in a large space, you can also put directional reminders on your signage to help new team members find their way around. As they become more comfortable, your training will be expedited.
Reminders
Imagine your business is trying to implement a new procedure into your daily routine – perhaps a follow up call after a service order, or an additional step in an existing workflow. It can be labor-intensive to get your whole team to 1) learn it and 2) remember to do it. Not to mention, it’s irritating to everyone to have you repeat it over and over. Let your Retrievers do that for you – it’s their job! Put up a slide with a reminder, or a photograph or a video of the new process and let your team passively be reminded as they engage with your internal screens without prodding from you or your management team.
Goal Tracking & Deadlines
Whether you’re using KPIs, SMART goals, OKRs, or something else entirely, every business struggles to keep everyone focused on achieving their big picture goals when they’re buried deep in the day-to-day. Retriever Digital Signage is a great solution for goal tracking, because you can include reminders, deadlines, and progress updates simply and quickly in your playlist, giving no one an excuse when it comes time for your next quarterly meeting.
Processes & Procedures
Does your business have several processes or procedures to teach your new employees? Reinforce their training with short training videos included in your Retriever playlist. You can post those same videos on a Vimeo or YouTube channel, but the reminders of how you’d like to see processes play out is a great way to train and re-train your team and set a clear expectation without dedicating hours to teaching, getting your new employees working at full capacity sooner and keeping your existing employees from cutting corners.
If you’re a small business owner and would like some help training your team, we can help. Click here to contact us and we would love to assist!