Personnel issues are some of the biggest challenges in management. Even the most effective managers encounter stubborn personnel obstacles—ones that won’t go away, but continue to block the flow of business and give rise to employee training issues. Many leave you feeling overwhelmed, wondering how tasks that are seemingly so simple sometimes feel impossible to overcome. Here are a few common examples, including solutions, that can help you turn these situations around.
Challenge #1: That’s not my job.
Have you ever watched a member of your staff see a problem, and not even try to solve it? Are your employees regularly at odds with each other? Do you feel like you’re having the pull teeth just to get people to follow even the simplest policies?
The solution: If the answer is yes to any of the previous questions, you need to improve teamwork in your business. Start by establishing incentives that reward employees for taking initiative. You be the judge. Award dollar bills or some other small prize for cleaning something without being asked, pitching in to help someone else, going beyond the call of duty — anything worthy of recognition.
Challenge #2: I don’t know how.
How many times a week do you feel overwhelmed by this employee response? While it can be frustrating, try not to respond with something like “But I already told you how.” Down the road, the challenge will only evolve into “I don’t remember how.” One of the keys to successful management is to deal with small challenges while they’re still small.
The solution: Improve your employee training on multi-step tasks with a blending learning approach:
- Tell the employee how to do it.
- Show the employee yourself how to do it.
- Then have the employee do it. Follow up regularly to make sure he or she remains on track.
Challenge #3: I misunderstood.
It’s frustrating and time consuming to give an employee an assignment, only to discover later that he or she wasn’t clear on what you wanted. Sometimes you might feel like you have to go as far as drawing the employee a picture. And maybe you do.
The solution: Provide employees with a cheat-sheet for specific tasks. Use the document management system within your LMS to provide employees with access to these on demand. During your on-the-job training with the employee, review the document. This way, both sides win. You can make sure that your instructions are complete and that your employees are clear on how to proceed.
