I am a Training Specialist for the Head Office of a Franchising Company. We recently updated the software system used to run the retail business for our franchisees. Their old system was in place for more than 10 years and they were expected to learn and convert to this new system quite rapidly. Training Materials were created on the fly and conference calls were used to roll out the training as our franchisees are located in all different parts of the US and Canada. 8 Modules were provided to super-users, namely the franchisees who were then responsible for training their own staff and were provided materials to assist with this method. These were not modules but were more hour long conference calls demonstrating specific applications of the new software. Hindsight being 20\/20, I think actual modules created using Adobe Captivate or another tool which would have guided users based on how they were actually going to interact with the system would have been better. Therefore I have suggested a new and a renewed learning practice that could beef up our training department’s credibility and hopefully lessen the burden on our IT support group as well.<\/p>\n
Learning Practice #1 – Update our Learning Management System with Role Specific Modules<\/strong><\/p>\n We could still develop these modules based on how a customer service representative would utilize the system. This would allow for employee growth within the stores and would also provide more of a real-world scenario for the different roles within the stores. It would certainly require a lot of time and effort to re-create this learning but would also be great for on-boarding new employees and may even decrease turnover rates within the stores.<\/p>\n Learning Practice #2 – Training Resources Wiki Page Update<\/strong><\/p>\n As a companion to these training sessions that were held via conference calls, an internal WIKI page was created to house all of our training resources. This site is organized (not very well) by the level of difficulty of each application within the new software. There is no rhyme or reason to it and the feedback we have received with regards to this resource is pretty negative. The sessions that I record are typically posted up in a page called “Webinars” and for those quick and easy questions that would only take a second to answer, franchisees need to filter through either a video or the text-based “How-To’s” which provide a screen shot of how to complete the task in the application. I think an overhaul of what we have on this internal Wiki page could make a big difference and could engage peer-to-peer learning and even perhaps a larger community of practice if organized in an easy to use and navigate fashion. Quick “bite-sized” learning demos and a re-organization of the site based on again real-world examples could really assist franchisees with their questions about the Wiki site, but also allow for better resources when they are training their new staff. I think of this practice as a renewed practice as we would be taking what we already have and restructuring and re-organizing the content to make it fit better in a real-world context. I think we would also want to encourage a FAQ page as well as a space for franchisees to ask other franchisees about specific problems or tasks within the new software system. After all, this new system runs their entire retail business and I am certain that there are users out there who may have even better examples of how they have corrected problems\/issues that they have faced when using the system with their customers.<\/p>\n I think both of these learning practices would be an essential part of bringing up the franchisee satisfaction for the training that they receive on the system. I am only one person who would need significant support to undertake both of these learning practices. There may be time in 2018! Based on this I think I would focus on my second learning practice. I think a re-organization, re-recording of helpful tips and tricks and a move away from long text-based “how-to’s” and hour-long recorded conference calls would make our internal WIKI site more engaging and would begin to take the diverse learning styles of our franchisees into account. A redesign of that site could prove to engage the learners into their learning community and hopefully aid in developing a community of practice among them.<\/p>\n Any Feedback on either of these learning practices would be much appreciated..<\/p>\n Thank you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am a Training Specialist for the Head Office of a Franchising Company. We recently updated the software system used to run the retail business for our franchisees. 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