How To Set Your IT Staff Up For Success
When it comes to developing employees for success there are many ways a company can ensure that their employees are ready to face any problem and grow with the company. Some organizations have the same type of development programs for all employees, but most prefer different development programs based on the department and the nature of work that’s expected from a certain team. When it comes to the technology team, one of the biggest challenges is anticipating the kind of training that would be needed during the next 12 months, mainly because of the constant introduction of new technologies. While you can utilize IT skills training services to overcome that challenge, your job as a manager does not end there. You need to set your IT staff up for success. Here’s how you can do that.
Hands-On Training
When it comes to IT, there is no better way to learn through direct experience with the machine or software. Hands-on training allows the employee to gain experience in a controlled environment, which also instills a sense of empowerment within them.
The best way to learn in the IT sector is to be comfortable with the new tech and the word new tech itself tends to get a bit intimidating. Hands-on training removes that fear of new tech and allows the employee a more satisfied experience instead of learning through other mediums. This means your employees, while undergoing training, should have access to virtual labs where they can practice what they are learning.
Use Both Online And In-Person Training
A very common misconception on the topic of how to train your employees’ skills is that they can easily learn everything online. There are people who can easily learn everything online but since different people have a very different approach to learning, it is much better to consider combining both in-person training and online training.
Online portals are a very good source of learning as there are a lot of portals and websites that have created content that can responsibly deliver the message required to teach someone. Still there are some cases where it might be a better idea to teach an employee in person. This comes in handy when an employee is a beginner in a new technology. These days, in-person doesn’t necessarily mean that the instructor has to be there at your location physically, but your employee should have access to a mentor that they can reach out to and actually talk to about the challenges they face.
Treat Training As Part Of The Job
Your IT employees have a lot on their plate. You have planned a number of tasks for them to do, they have deadlines to meet and goals to achieve, and all of that requires a lot of hands-on work. This means your employees will not be able to catch-up with everything new that’s happening in the world of IT. They will not be able to attend webinars that happen during work hours and they will have to catch up on reading useful blog posts like this on their own time. Your investment in employee training will not bear fruit if you do not treat training as part of the many tasks you expect your employees to achieve. When you enroll someone from your team in any kind of training, you need to may be extend the deadline on a few tasks so they can attend the classes in peace and focus on learning new skills without having to worry about putting in extra hours on the day or working on the weekends to meet a deadline.
Understand How Your Employees Learn
Everyone learns differently and at a different pace. You need to be able to find a way that works best for your employees. Some people prefer to learn by reading, some by watching how-to videos, some by trying things hands-on, and so on. If you stick to one mode of training, you will effectively be setting some of your employees up for success while others for failure. You need an IT skills service provider that has the capability to do multimodal knowledge transfer, so no one from the team is left behind. To make sure that the knowledge transfer is working and your employees are making decent progress, you will also need access to some kind of a tracking mechanism that shows you the progress of each employee.
QuickStart’s IT skills training services can help you empower your employees and set your IT team up for success. Feel free to reach out to us to discuss your IT training needs.