New policies and the changing of processes can be a time of great anxiety for many employees. Implementation is only one piece of the puzzle. It is also important to make sure your employees are comfortable with the changes moving forward. Management should also be able to assist your team through the adjustment. Here are several ways you can retrain your employees which will help reduce the time of the transition.
- Define the changes thoroughly. In order for someone to be 100% comfortable with a new policy they need to understand it completely. It is also important to manage everyone’s expectations as things are changing. If employees have a solid definition to refer back to they will be more likely to accept the new way of thinking.
- Follow up on the training. The very first thing you should do in training for the new process is to set up appointments to follow up after the training is complete. This way the follow up doesn’t get lost in the shuffle and you can talk with your team to see how they are doing with the changes. This will allow you to correct anything that isn’t right in a timely way.
- Ask for employee feedback. Don’t just encourage questions for the training process, require them. This gives you a genuine gauge to determine how well your team is picking up the information. Asking questions also helps in the learning process and will increase subject retention.
- Individualized learning styles. Everyone learns differently. Some may retain information better verbally and others through hands on experience. Use multiple learning styles including visual, social, and others to engage all of your employees. If these differences are not addressed you may have to spend time retraining.
- Effective communication. It is important to be thorough and patient when communicating the new policies or procedures to your team. You both need to have a comfort level with the new information before anyone can perform their duties properly. Encourage a two way street, communicate with everyone at every step, and don’t be upset when an individual asks for clarification of the subject.
Is your company facing a significant transition? Harvard Resource Solutions can help streamline your process today!
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