Training Can Save You Time and Increase Profitability

To be trained or not to be trained, that is the question,
Tis nobler to fly by the seat of my pants and pretend,
Or know what I am doing and be a revenue generator.

The above is an employee’s lament, a wish to know what they are supposed to do, to know how to perform an assigned task thoroughly and without error. It reflects the fear their boss will view them as undesirable and remove them from gainful employment. Fear yes, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

When departments and functions are created in new companies and often even in existing ones, training normally takes a back seat to getting the job done. However, the new company can’t afford the problems that come with the lack of training. If there is one problem that would rank first in employees dissatisfaction scale, it is the inadequate training they receive to start their jobs or new assignments.

Often, the pace at a CLEC is extremely fast, which further lessens the likelihood that adequate training will occur.  However, this often puts employees into situations in which they are responsible for a task but given little to no direction on how to perform the task.

Even worse, management doesn’t realize the uncomfortable position in which they place their employees. Left alone, employees who don’t know their tasks will wing it.

Why is there little or no training offered?

1.     More tasks than people available to perform them

2.     Department heads think they know the tasks they’re responsible for in detail, but have no method to impart their knowledge.

3.     Supervision is weak.

4.     Supervision has limited or improper background knowledge.

5.     Workers do not feel comfortable in requesting proper training

Although lack of training is a common problem, it does impact your bottom line. For example, a sales order is not properly written leading to improper translation and assumptions by provisioning. Further impacted by improper billing assignments, the result is one or more calls to customer service followed by a trouble ticket to correct the provisioning and billing problem.  Thus, it becomes a costly error.  This simple problem is magnified when you consider that hundreds of orders can be written every day.

When problems do occur, your service staff could be overwhelmed resulting in long customer wait times and frustration, which ultimately results in lost customers and the revenue they generated. In addition, you experienced additional unnecessary internal costs, which reduces your profit margins.

So how can a company address this recurring problem?

1.     Compensate department heads on the documentation of each process for which they are responsible

2.     Each supervisor is compensated on the testing the procedures or processes as documented, including the interface points.

3.     Immediately address and solve problems or misunderstanding of procedures.

4.     Give each new hire a departmental overview and where they fit into the overall organization.

5.     Supervisors/trainers must review employee tasks and provide ongoing monitoring with immediate feedback.

Employee training is an effective communication device. It insures the employee knows what is expected of him or her and how they will be measured or monitored for future opportunities. Employees who know what to expect and know their tasks are more willing to provide feedback to management when they see a problem developing. Without proper training, a problem will not be recognized and can fester, possibly resulting in a larger issue once it is discovered. After all, if the employee doesn’t know any better, how can they be expected to report the situation.

New companies must manage their margins closer than ever since they often are under-cutting existing companies in order to gain market share. Gaining market share by getting numbers of customers does not help the new company if there is no net gain in customers on a regular basis. Investing the time and effort in assuring proper training of processes and procedures will achieve the overall net gain necessary to grow a company.

Jim Marsh is a senior consultant for The Management Network Group, a telecom consulting organization.  Jim has worked in telecom for 15 years and is an expert in revenue assurance, risk management and fraud. Jim speaks and writes on improving operational systems and functions to improve bottom lines.