It’s peak season, and you know what that means: hiring season! Did you recently hire employees and require them to get a full-scale training session? I’m willing to guess yes. Let’s ask another question. Once your employees are initially trained, is it a mandatory aspect of their job responsibilities to participate in ongoing training?
Training is necessary.
Would you want to eat a gourmet meal prepared by a chef who never cooked a meal? Of course not! Training is important regardless of what industry you’re in. What most people don’t realize is that training, ideally, should never end.
If you don’t offer any sort of recurring training for your current staff, you may want to consider implementing a program sooner than later. Sure, it takes some effort, but the time and investment will be well worth it.
Why continue training your employees?
There are many reasons to retrain your employees that will prove to be beneficial to you, to your staff, and ultimately to your customers. Perhaps you’re rolling out a new promotion, changing a policy, or planning a system upgrade that will include new features.
Having staff members who regularly update their knowledge makes them stay competitive, even when tech in our industry is changing. Staff members who retain outdated knowledge will end up making you and your business look bad. Considering how competitive the tanning industry is, you can’t afford that.
Besides, ongoing training is also a major company perk. People like to feel knowledgeable about the field they work in. Your employees will appreciate it more than you would expect them to.
Train with a purpose!
Regardless of the reason, the first step and arguably the most important, is to clearly communicate the purpose and value of the training to your employees. If your staff understands the reason behind the training there is a good chance that you will keep them engaged throughout, producing the most effective results.
As we transition from the heart of busy season to preparing for the summer months, are you planning on launching any new product or service promotions to both retain existing and attract new customers? That’s important to take into account when planning your your training sessions
This would be an opportune time to conduct training so that your team can improve their sales skills, truly understand the products or services that they are selling, and how to best entice customers to make a purchase using the promotion.
Train when you’re updating your processes, policies, or products.
Changes to processes or in your company policies are also tremendous reasons to retrain employees, especially when the changes might directly affect your customers. For example, maybe you’ve implemented a supplemental fee that will be assessed annually to all EFT members, as well as a 3-draft minimum before a customer can cancel their membership.
Empowering your staff with ways to properly explain the new fees or requirements as well as how to process these transactions in your salon management system will be extremely beneficial. After all, new fees and processes can be daunting. Saying the wrong thing or being clueless can put your employee in hot water with guests
Train the way you would see in a school.
Teachers have all the right ideas when it comes to training and teaching. It’s what they were trained to do best. So, it often makes sense to take a page from their book and offer your training in a classroom setting. (You can often rent a virtual office or use a virtual classroom for this purpose.)
In addition to the standard classroom-type training session, a great way to accomplish these goals is to create a test environment where your employees can get hands-on practice, at their own pace, with a training database so that there is no effect on your live data.
Your goal should be to create a training environment that encourages people to ask questions, try new techniques, and practice with their coworkers. It should be a safe space for learning.
Keep an eye on feedback.
When developing training programs for your staff, be sure to remember that everyone learns a little differently, and that it’s important to adjust your methodology based on the individual. Following training, the best way to ensure that material is retained by your employees is to enlist their feedback via an anonymous survey.
This is especially important when you are training on process changes; if they are able to candidly express their opinions, they may even offer some great suggestions for additional improvements that you may not have thought of initially. And if your employees feel that their opinions are valued, they will be more inclined to remain an employee for the long term, which is so important right now.
Consistency is key.
Regular retraining will help you to set expectations for your employees and provide consistency in the services that are offered to your customers. Well-trained employees will flourish with their enhanced skill set. They will sell more with heightened confidence and create stronger relationships with your customers, all resulting in expanded success for your business.
