Sir Claus Moser, renowned British statistician from the London School of Economics, in an interview to The Daily Telegraph in 1990, has concluded: “Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.” The good news is that corporate training costs less than ever seemed. Empowering and recycling your team can starts with creating a mentoring program and can be extended to the rotation of the employees’ roles within the company. Does it seem strange? Every innovation implies estrangement. Your company can also schedule visits to other companies for the teams to share experiences, but you can look within and allow your employees to share with each other what they already know. Take note: the hidden wealth is not little. Let’s start the training!

Preparations

For almost all types of corporate training, the manager must know:

a) The number of participants.
b) The methodology to be used based on the number of participants and the company’s business model.
c) Date, location and duration of each activity and the whole training.
d) The effectiveness: how you will measure the success of the training and the participants’ reactions.
e) The objectives: very clear, so the team does not forget where they need to come.

1. Mentoring program

The experienced professionals assume the role of mentors to the younger ones. This includes the set of goals and demand for results. Each employee who works longer in the company assumes the task of guiding one or more rookies in weekly or biweekly meetings, inside or outside the company. The issues dealt in general are procedures and business rules, professional growth opportunities and expectations for employee performance.

2. Rotation of roles

Employees spend seasons in different areas of the company and discover their routine. This way, they become empowered to exercise the skills of other professionals without cost of external training. The urgency for the lack of some professional, others may even take the role, depending on the demand. This is a useful strategy to the young talents to identify what company’s areas they get along with, to learn about the functioning of the whole company, and prepare to take leadership positions.

3. Employees’ lectures

Professionals with specific talents share their knowledge with the colleagues. This is how it works: when an employee, for example, does a course on a subject that might interest more people, he/she can teach the lesson to the team. Thus, a good lesson learned becomes public knowledge. What about once a month?

4. Study groups

Groups of professionals come together to discuss important issues for the company. It’s a way for the team to keep updated on a theme they find difficult and to be in constant contact with the team members without spending for it more than a few hours. Don’t accept the excuse that there are no conditions to take the staff out of the job to train them because it’d waste their time and distract them. In a team like that, believe me, the treatment given to the customer will tend to harshness, sales and communication techniques to the sameness, and the motivation, we don’t need to say.

5. Training with partners

Executives, suppliers and consultants who do business with small and medium enterprises tend to be willing to provide quick training on specific topics, voluntarily, to the employees of the partner. The goal is for everyone to grow together. In addition, your team can also make a visit to a partner company to seal agreements for the exchange of employees, compare their business models and discuss innovation, productivity and technology.

(Bonus) Runrun.it

The company adopts a single system to manage their team, as a collaborative network, where users help each other to fulfill their list of tasks. The emails are not even necessary to open a task or alert deadlines. All the sharing of documents and comments is done within the software and can’t be deleted after 15 minutes. With this method of organization, besides a considerable increase (25% on average) in team’s productivity, transparency in the relationships is preserved and communication, reinvented. Try if for free: http://runrun.it

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