Tag: employee training

29 Jun 2023
needs analysis for employee training

How can needs analysis affect employee training? 

Workforce training is happening in every company nowadays. But at is crucial about this thing is that it needs to be done properly to get the best results. When the employees don’t have any clue about the requirements of such training, the entire effort can go to waste. The employers must have clues about the needs analysis because the money spent on employee training will have the greatest impact in terms of time and energy. When the employee training has been designed as per the needs of the employees, they take an interest in it. They also feel motivated to continue with the training; otherwise, their dropout rates can be high. The trainers also find it easy to design employee training because they know the skill level of employees in terms of digital literacy, so employees don’t find the training obscure. The company can get positive outcomes from training when designed in such a manner.  

What is needs analysis?

A needs analysis provides a lot of data to the company about how employees like to learn. For example, how much previous experience they hold which helps in designing training. The employees should not be taught basics if they are experienced employees. Also, a complete needs analysis also delves into information about how the employees like to learn whether a visual or textual method is feasible for them.

Advantages of needs analysis

Set up performance metrics:

This ensures that the employees have the maximum retention rate. The needs analysis is useful when the companies measure performance after the training. Since the L&D department knows what the employees must learn from training, they can easily design performance metrics. If the training does not improve the performance metrics, it needs to be redesigned. The needs analysis is the foundation of employee training because it ensures that a company’s goals are attained. A company conducts employee training to ensure that its goals are met. But when there is no improvement in the performance of its employees, the training money is not well spent. 

How should needs analysis be done?

What is the difference between needs analysis and workforce analysis?  

Needs analysis is a prerequisite to employee training.

Companies can learn about short-term and long-term goals through this analysis. For example, these days, skilled labor is not so easy to find. Hence, companies must find labor that can handle machines apart from adopting automation. 

Workforce analysis is an in-depth analysis, a much deeper insight into the workforce of an organization.

Workforce analysis is a prerequisite of needs analysis:

It ensures data is collected about a company’s employees, including their skills and their background, such as their qualifications. This helps a company plan for the future, whether certain employees can be promoted from within to handle the positions and, if not, whether they can be trained for it. 

When the company has analyzed the workforce, it knows how much labor from outside it will need in the future(succession planning).  

The salary demands of employees also change with time. Hence a company should be prepared to adjust to all these changes with time. These analyses are responsible before a company prepares itself for any training. When a company evaluates employees’ skills, it must consider their hard and soft skills so that it knows how much training will be needed.  

Demand analysis:

Apart from analysis based on the skillset of the labor and how much they will learn in the future, a company also has an external environment responsible for hiring new employees. This is called demand analysis. A company might need new products depending on the market changes, so it must change its portfolio. Some new regulations also affect a company, like higher import duties due to which it must set up manufacturing of certain goods on the premises.

Based on all this, when a company has done succession planning, it knows who will take the employees’ positions and who will retire or be promoted. There will be many vacant positions that the company can predict will advance. 

The workforce capacity can be analyzed by a company this way by which it knows how many people will be needed in distinct roles and how many people will be sufficient owing to the changes in the market and depending on their productivity levels. If any changes are required, and the forecast predicts a higher number of people meeting the goals, the training should be planned accordingly.

That’s how, training should be planned after doing a proper needs analysis.

29 Sep 2022
example of web based training

Role of web-based training safety programs in the construction industry

OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has prescribed many standards for companies to make sure that worker safety is prioritized.

Companies, especially those in the construction industry, must ensure that the safety standards are implemented effectively through web-based training.

OSHA requires the construction industry employers to have a specific concentration of chemicals in the air (Parts Per Molecule), which should not exceed a certain limit. It has stated such concentrations of such chemicals for about 500 substances for workers in construction and other industries, including shipyard employment.

Shipyard employment also includes exposure to chemicals; hence, web-based training is required for such workers. The workers come in contact with such chemicals when they repair ships. Their work includes cutting and joining steel on various parts and plumbing, involving exposure to chemicals such as nitrogen dioxide.

What are basic safety practices for construction sites?

Construction companies must ensure that they provide information about dangerous chemicals to employees and customers. Web-based training is required for this purpose. The employees must provide proper training to workers who are required to deal with these chemicals so that no harm is caused. They must be given instructions in print to take with them to work.

OSHA has stated a hazard specification standard (safety data sheets) for chemical and construction employers to adhere to. Per these standards, each container storing such chemicals must have labels containing pictograms. The employee must find these labels understandable to handle these chemicals with care so that no acidic burns are caused. In the construction industry, adequate importance must be placed on reporting any lack of safety equipment such as PPE.

The workers should be given web-based training to use reporting systems. The construction sites must have a medical team to deal with circumstances with excessive exposure to dangerous chemicals. The web-based training can explain the proper ways to handle the chemicals through simulations where it can display how toxic exposure can harm a worker’s health and what to do in case of certain symptoms.

Difference between (Permissible Exposure Limit)PEL AND STEL(Short Time Exposure Limit)

 The construction companies must also know the permissible exposure limits (PEL) for chemicals, i.e., workers can’t be exposed to such concentrations of airborne chemicals for more than 8 or even lesser hours in a day, depending on what can be aftereffects if the chemical is inhaled.

The companies must know that they are supposed to follow the PEL values of concentration of chemicals in the air, but if it’s exceeded, it’s not to be more than STEL. This STEL refers to the Short Term Exposure Limit, which implies how much hazardous substance (time-weighted average) is present in the air for a short period of exposure of 15 minutes. This cannot happen for a duration of 15 minutes or more and should only happen a maximum of 4 times. Moreover, there should also be a time duration of 60 minutes elapsed between such exposures.

If the amount of substance is higher than STEL during such time, then it can prove to be toxic to the worker’s health. The STEL exceeding the PEL rule is applicable when the amount of substance in the air is not constant during the day.

For example, OSHA has made it mandatory that the PEL for carbon monoxide in the air is 50ppm for an 8-hour work schedule. 

What are Safety Data Sheets?

OSHA requires companies to have a mandatory Safety Data Sheet. The safety data sheets, which have a 16-section format, must also be explained to onsite construction employees to ensure they face no trouble.

In Section 8 of the Safety Data Sheet, there should be the inclusion of the PEL, as prescribed by OSHA.

These Safety Data Sheets must be compulsorily prepared either by the construction industry employer or the chemical importer or manufacturer. 

This data sheet must also contain useful information for workers while picking up containers with dangerous chemicals. So, Section 3 must include data about the ingredients of these chemicals. Moreover, if any spill happens, comprehensive information must be included in section 4 of the data sheet, like how to recognize symptoms and how one should take care of the victim because any delayed response can be life-threatening. The symptoms can be acute or severe, and Section 4 must cover the responses to both situations.

Section 5 must include details about how to douse fires caused by chemical leaks. There should also be measures on how to wipe such chemicals in case any spill happens, included in Section 6 of the Safety Data Sheet.

Although a Safety Data Sheet is mandatory, workers might not have everything ingrained in their memory, and any forgetfulness and negligence in such cases can cause problems. Hence, simulation-based videos must also supplement such a Safety Data Sheet to produce better results.

Consequences of non-compliance 

The company can lose not only valuable man-hours if workers sustain injuries due to inhaling such chemicals, but also neurological injuries can be caused to workers, making the company liable to pay massive damages. A company must also maintain that laws are followed pertaining to such dangerous chemicals. It should have evidence regarding the management controls to handle the risks related to the release of such chemicals. 

We Creativ Technologies have prepared multitude of detailed videos for our clients including simulations about the OSHA compliance standards.

10 Dec 2021
training manual

Is an employee training manual crucial?

Employee training is pivotal to employees attending such sessions. When they have the training manual with them, they know the schedule for such sessions and what the course will contain. These are the reasons due to which an employee training manual is important:

Won’t bother the superiors all the time:

Such a training manual can be given to employees to ensure that they know what the company has in store for them.

The training manuals can prevent employees from asking their superiors every time they get confused about company policies. A training manual can also contain information about the policies and procedures intrinsic to a company such as the lunch hours, dress code, company’s timings, leave policies, and reporting systems. Having such information can make sure employees don’t disobey rules. An employee can’t check his emails all the time to get informed about company rules.

Domain related knowledge:

Other kinds of training manuals are those through which employees get information about the respective developments in their domain. Such training manuals can help employees know how they will be enlightened about such developments through synchronous sessions so that they can seek the manager’s permissions to attend the same. When employees tend to forget what has been taught to them in a training session, it’s mandatory for them to recall everything where such manuals are useful. Such manuals can be in the form of handbooks so that employees can carry them anywhere. The new employees should be kept in the loop about everything regarding what training is going to be held for the entire organization and specific departments. Having such knowledge makes them feel like they are an indispensable part of the organization. There can also be information added about which courses are obligatory and which are not, so employees can chalk out time based on it.

Employee training manuals help make salespeople understand the crucial steps in generating a sale. They not only get ample product knowledge, but also understand how to consult the company’s intranet to get the required JIT.

General knowledge about a company:

There can also be scenarios included in such manuals in the form of podcasts. Through such podcasts, employees can understand where to park the car because any parking slots are reserved for certain employees. Also, employees can only enter through such certain doors because the rest of the doors might be for public entry. Writing the training manual is also critical because employees grasp information through it. Hence, when a general training manual is written, HR should be clear about the rules and describe the ramifications when they are violated.

Therefore, these are the situations in which a training manual turns out to be a crucial resource:

When an employee quits:

When an old employee leaves the company, another employee can substitute him, and he gets the required knowledge through such training manuals. An experienced employee also might be forced to leave the job due to transfer or a sudden illness, due to which his job duties have to be reassigned. The need for the training manual is however lesser when the leaving employee has adequate time to provide proper knowledge to the employee replacing him, which is not generally the case. The former employee might not have time to provide hands-on training to the other worker, and that’s where the latter can consult the training manual.

When the company wants to go digital:

A company might decide to provide its employees with an LMS. So, it has to put all the internal information on it hence a manual is useful to the e-learning vendors and IT employees in such a situation. When a manual is in place, an HRIS can also be developed accordingly because it can send reminders to employees after tracking their attendance per day, i.e. when they are arriving late. Also, the HRIS sends automatic salary slips to employees based on the leave policy of the company. That’s because the IT employees have the training manual to input such policy details into the HRIS.

When the HR leaves:

Companies might change their leave policies in the future, and hence the past training manuals come in handy at that time. In case the HR is replaced, the companies still have the old training manuals with them to know about the relevant procedures.

How to create such training manuals?

But when department-specific training manuals are put into words, it’s better, that the help of departmental heads is taken who have comprehensive information about processes and software. They can draft such documents, but screenshots can be arranged by juniors. The help of the creative team is also needed to ensure that the information is presented correctly with diagrams. Training manuals can also be given to employees based on their roles in the company. This ensures that the employees have a perfect growth plan highlighted for them based on what will make them sustain and grow in their positions. Such kind of training will make them more productive and adapt to a new role if they have been just hired or promoted. The employee training manual helps employees learn about their corporate training plan, which has been prepared for them.

16 Nov 2021
employee training

Is employee training that inevitable in retail companies now?

In the US, a lot of frontline workers have quit their jobs, particularly in April 2021. Now the companies have no choice before them but to get automation because of depleting manpower. If humans are not present to do their jobs, at least robots should do so. So the employees have to be trained on how to use these robots. Robots can take the place of human beings in doing monotonous jobs.

For example, companies are replacing human beings with the Internet of Things (IoT) based drones for inventory counting purposes. Since such drones are IoT-based, they can update the software on the retailer’s PC with the updated item count on each aisle. So through this software the robot or the retailer can immediately file a reorder to the appropriate supplier.

Hence, employee training has become pivotal for retail companies due to automation and other reasons mentioned below:

Need for Automation:

The most automatable activities are those which include entering customer information into PCs. So, filing clerks can easily be replaced by robots that can easily process such information too with the aid of software.

Due to the impact of the pandemic also, retail stores are opting for automation. It’s because human contact has to be minimized due to their risk of catching the disease. Hence, a robot is a better option. Robots can easily monitor customers for mask compliance without causing any retaliation. Apart from that, they can also alert employees when they are in proximity to others so that proper distance is maintained. Intelligent automation is the need of the hour because customers want an expedited experience, much similar to online shopping.

Hence, robots can be efficiently employed for this purpose because they can help in real-time inventory management.

They can be programmed to count the inventory in the morning and, based on real-time data stored with them about the orders placed, they can order refilling of the inventory by the suitable vendor. Much more, when they have information about the inventory and about how many items it contains, they can immediately inform the customer through phone or in the face about the availability.

But in the case of a human managing the store, the customer dealing becomes slow because they might not have accurate information about the inventory all the time. In fact, mobile robots are necessary because the frontline employee can avoid a visit to the inventory and get updated about its status through them.

Use of RFID tags:

RFID is also a smart tracker to check whether the delivery vehicle to the customer has reached its intended destination. When the frontline employee has an RFID reader, he can easily contact the driver and locate it to ensure that the customer is notified about the delivery status. The driver can’t lie about the location due to the presence of the RFID chip on the vehicle.

The RFID tags are also used for monitoring the product sales because if any customer enters the shop and does shoplifting, he can be stopped at the exit gate due to the RFID chip in the tag of the product. Such activities can be monitored by a robot that’s holding the RFID reader. The usage of robots in retail stores has also been necessitated because humans can’t be deployed during the daytime when there are more people and the risk of infection is high.

Hence, robots can be of such assistance during this time. Moreover, many employees are scared to return to retail stores due to the pandemic and prefer to work from home, which isn’t feasible because they have to manage customers.

Smart scheduling

Smart scheduling systems are getting used by retail companies, for which employee training is necessary.

This software helps managers in delegating employees to the store in such a manner so that there is no under-staffing to ruin customers’ experiences or over-staffing. This is done because the software can predict the customer inflow into the store at different times of the day. Moreover, if an employee is not available during a certain time due to other issues, that is also taken into account while generating the employees’ schedules for a day.

Use of AI-based mobile apps:

The retail companies don’t treat their frontline workers as occasional now because of the costs involved in training their replacements. Also, due to the pandemic, everyone is not willing to come to the store to work, so companies can’t lose someone who is.

Hence, companies are empowering their employees with knowledge, especially about products and new technologies, for higher job satisfaction and better retention. And that can be done when employees’ training is imparted for faster handling of customer queries, for which speedy access to inventory information is needed.

Therefore, companies are providing mobile apps to employees through which they get JIT information about product prices, their availability, and features. These apps can be used anywhere and is a comfortable option when the retail employee is working from home. Such an app provides answers to retailer’s questions so that their customers’ response times increase.

It’s because these apps are AI-based and know the questions a customer with a certain profile will pose to the retailer. All the answers by the app get generated based on the customer information entered there. Hence, employee training on how to use such apps is mandatory for customer happiness and increased purchases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 Nov 2021
employee training

Why is employee training a priority for the success of a company? 

Companies are doing their best to motivate employees because the latter contribute to the profits of the company. So, employees should be the most productive, and hence employee training is mandatory for all kinds of employees due to the following reason:

Skill enrichment:

Employee training boosts their morale, otherwise, they are likely to leave their jobs because there is not enough incentive to continue with it. The employees need to be given proper development opportunities, which include upskilling them. With such kind of skill development, they have growth opportunities that make them stick to the current company. They perform better in their jobs due to skill enhancement and hence are appreciated by managers.

Employee morale can also get adversely affected when they are not paid well. But with skill enrichment, they are promoted and also get more stability in their present jobs. This is important because job instability can also be a cause of poor performance at the workplace.

Managers also require employee training for handling their juniors:

  • Soft skill training for managers:

The managers have to take initiative to make sure employees have the right gusto for the job. Hence, managers need to be trained on topics such as communicating well with their employees and understanding them. Managers can be the best communicators for their employees and listen to their woes and pacify them.

Hence, managers must know how to keep employees focused on their jobs through proper rewards and positive talking.

  • Exciting work schedules:

Managers can also make sure employees have the will to perform. It can be done that managers pay attention to what an employee is capable of doing and design the work routines according to him.

The employees feel so worthy when the companies make use of their fullest potential, i.e. engaging them in different roles. This way, the employees don’t feel stagnated in their current roles because they are using all their skills. And when employees have diverse duties throughout the day, the job becomes interesting for them.

As a manager, you must make the job more stimulating and enriching for employees when you let them take initiative.

  • Better team handling:

The employees should feel connected with the job. They must understand the business goals and contribute to their achievement. Hence, when employee training is given to them, they are in a better position for their jobs, which is beneficial for the company too.

As such, managers should communicate constantly with their subordinates to let them know about any company problems to get the employees’ opinions on how to resolve them. When employees are consulted about company matters, they realize they hold importance to the company.

 

It is the manager’s job to ensure collaboration between teams

Employee training for managers is crucial too because when they handle big teams, challenges can arise.

Team members don’t believe in each other, and it becomes a big concern because they are unable to entrust each other with work. For this kind of credibility to develop, they should know each other well and their skills.

Due to not knowing each other, some team members might not be able to delegate their work and end up doing everything themselves. This can cause difficulties later when these team members feel overburdened with work. So, as a manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that there is sufficient trust among team members and that they consider each other responsible, skillful, and credible.

Also, at the same time, managers can make teams aware of how crucial it is for the company’s success for them to work together on the project. Teamwork is quite necessary in cases when the customers have to be handled and the service desk person needs information from the backend to handle customer queries properly. That’s, why managers require employee training for better team management.

He was a German psychologist who is known for discovering the forgetting curve. According to this curve, the biggest decline in memory happens within 20 minutes, and then 1 hour.