The 3 Ts of people development

Training:
Not enough resources have been allocated to training in the past. Research taken from my training shows that the average customer service representative receives training once every five to eight years. This is a frightening statistic and we wonder why we experience bad service.

Companies today who offer good service allocate a sizeable portion of their budget to training in order to develop their most important asset being their employee. Some companies and speakers have stated that the customer comes first and the employee is just an expense. This is not true. If you look after your employees and give them access to the necessary skills training then you will definitely become a service leader in your industry.

Talking:

One of the biggest problems in most companies today is communication between managers and their immediate employees. Research taken from my training shows that in over eight percent of cases there is little or no communication between managers and employees. There are no monthly one-on-one performance sessions, time out coffee sessions, team-building sessions, etc. Communication comes second on the list to employees on the most important list. Analyse your current forms of communication and assess whether or not they are effective. Your findings might surprise you. Managers and employees need to interact on a more regular basis. The same applies to senior management and employees at ground level.

Teaching:

Some managers have a fear that if they teach their employees what they know their job might be at risk or alternatively they look at information sharing as a power dominance tool. The more I know than you the better off I will be. In some companies, managers sit in meetings for over eighty percent of their working day and still have to be there for their employees as well as perform their admin duties. Managers are overloaded with work and need to share the workload with their employees. Employees want to take on additional responsibility, so give it to them. A good manager is a manager that can leave job tomorrow and the department would continue as though they were not there.

Managers today are responsible for developing tomorrow's leaders. As a manager, it is your responsibility to develop those who report to you. If you can successfully implement the 3 Ts into your company you will definitely see an increase in staff loyalty, service improvement and an increase in staff morale.

In addition to the 3 Ts, there is another way in which you can boost your staff's morale and their productivity and commitment…

Job Recognition

When was the last time that you turned to the person next to you and thanked them for their support in being able to do your job successfully? Managers, when was the last time you thanked your employees on a one on one basis for a job well done. Everyone thrives on recognition whether we admit or not.

Research taken from my training has shown that over 75% of the delegates that attend my training do not get thanked for a job well done. Even when someone is disciplined for doing the wrong thing believe or not you can add in job recognition into this process. For example, John delivers mail for the postal service directly to the client's physical address. John makes forty deliveries a day and one two occasions he delivered the post to the incorrect address.

The customer complained and John has been called into the manager's office for a disciplinary. What do you think happens in most companies today when this situation arises. Yes, the employee is either shouted at or treated in a poor manner, yet we forget about all the good this person has done.

John delivers 200 items a week and over 800 items a month. Because two errors were made, we forget about the 798 times he got it right. We always to tend remember when someone has done something wrong but what about when they get it right.

The correct way to handle such a situation is to start by informing the employee that they are doing a good job, and then proceed to inform them of where they went wrong. Follow that with a discussion on what action plan can be put in place to ensure that it did not happen again and finally end off with reassuring them that they are doing a good job.

This will boost their self-esteem and keep them motivated to continue doing their job to the best of their ability.