subject: Doing The Software Dance [print this page] Software is constantly going through changes, updates, improvements, and complete revamps. When your business is dependent on this software, these changes make an impact on your productivity. On top of this is making sure all your employees stay current with all these updates and changes.
Getting the training on brand new software is usually a matter of course, but tuning into the constant new items and features of your existing software can be a challenge. If you get new software, productivity can virtually stop until everyone is trained.
Staying In Sync With Software
If you've brought new software online to increase your productivity or add to the capabilities your employees or your company offers, you'll need to get proper training. If your company has someone who can do this for you, that's great. But, consider this. Some of your employees may have a good working knowledge of the software systems in question. The question is how well are they suited to train the rest of your company?
Knowing and showing can often be two different things. A lot of people are able to get around just fine, and as all things technological, the ones who know forget all the little factors that people who don't know need.
Taking the newspaper business as an example; the common rule is to write for an eighth grade level. That may seem insulting for more educated people, but for the ones who don't have that education, it makes it possible for them to understand stories. In other words, you want to be able to reach everyone, regardless of their background.
Getting Employee Training On Software
Taking all this into consideration, you want to provide the maximum training for all the different levels of understanding you may have within your company. How do you do this? There are a number of ways, from finding someone inside your company that can fulfill this role, hiring a representative from each software company, or hiring a firm that can teach a number of different platforms.
The first two options can be tricky, but if it works, it works. The third option provides you with people who already have a training format designed to reach all kinds of levels, have expertise with the software, and can provide ongoing training if needed.
So, stay on the leading edge and get that new software, then get the right tools to train your people properly and you won't lose company productivity because your employees are stumbling through the learning process.
