By Mike Moore, Director of Training, HVAC Learning Solutions
So your employees have completed an HVAC Learning Solutions training class. Well done! Each one offers lots to learn — which means lots to remember. Like all skills, staying sharp takes both practice and reinforcement. How can you get what they’ve learned to stick?
In past blog posts, I’ve talked to you about the importance of signing up for HVAC Learning Solutions courses, but for this post, I want to talk about what follows. There are more parts to an HVAC Learning Solutions program than what happens in the classroom (or online).
Here are a couple key things to do to keep the success coming:
Start with yourself.
Implementation of what your team has learned starts with you. Did the program recommend altering the way you communicate with customers or changing the way you run team meetings? Show that you’re taking the new knowledge seriously by quickly acting on these things. By doing so, you’ll set an example for your employees to follow suit.
Also, keep an eye out for blog posts and articles that reinforce the topics discussed in the training course and circulate them to employees when appropriate. It’s a great way to keep the conversation going.
Set goals.
Know when and how you want to check in on the success of your employees’ new skills. Key performance indicators, for example, are imperative for successful goal measurement. But ideally, the goal-setting starts in the training courses themselves. Try asking employees to jot down two or three things they learned from the course that they’d like to put into practice. Immediate takeaways, both team-wide and individual, will help build momentum and motivation.
Check in.
Ask your employees to share their goals with you so that you can check in down the road and see how they’re doing; then see what you can do to help continue improvement. Also, don’t be afraid to make it fun. Put together some quizzes to assess how well your employees have retained what they’ve learned, and encourage participation with a little friendly competition by awarding a prize to the employee with the most correct answers.
Ready to start the process? Sign up for HVAC Learning Solutions training today. Plus, find more tips on our Twitter, Google+, and Facebook pages, and check out our HVAC video tutorials on YouTube.
Running a business is hard. Sharpen your skills to make it easier.