In the North American market, a recent study estimates that more than half of all CRM implementations fail to meet their objectives. –CRMsolution.com. This surprisingly high failure rate can be attributed to inefficient training programs.
You’ve found an excellent new employee. They are smart, skilled, and ready to make an impact on your business. You’ve also discovered a great CRM – Dynamics. You need your new employee up to speed on the CRM as soon as possible.
Balancing a quick employee onboarding with a thorough training program can be challenging. The following are five tips to accomplish this smoothly.
1. Start with Focused Deliverables
Overarching long term planning is important in all spheres of business, but in the short term scope of onboarding, quick results and feedback are crucial in building employee confidence and competency. Short term goals provide a measurable way for employees to adapt to a new program.
Harvard researcher Teresa Amabile, determined that the best workplace incentive is the completion of small daily tasks that provide a sense of accomplishment and progress. Her research also revealed that setbacks are one of the most damaging things to new employee confidence. It is important not to overwhelm new employees and cause them to lose their bearings.
Establishing a focused training routine of short attainable goals is the first crux of a good training program.
2. Outside the Box Learning Tactics
Studies have shown that knowledge retention from traditional classroom lectures pales in comparison to active learning. Skip the traditional lectures and have your employees training hands on. The sooner they are interacting with Dynamics the better. This can be accomplished in a few interesting different ways.
For instance, you can all be in the same room, but everybody has their laptop, and you are guiding them through mock tasks. Much harder to fall asleep when you are being challenged.
Outside of group settings, additional skills can be taught by integrated online guidance platforms like WalkMe. Programs like these offer the same advantage of direct interaction with the additional benefit of flexibility so that employees can learn at one’s own pace and time.
This type of hands on training is more fun, yields quicker results, and allows employees to develop a flexible and intimate understanding of Dynamics.
3. Lead by Example and Start from the Top
The best way to get everyone to buy in to a new program is for them to see their more experienced colleagues doing it.
Identify employees that are proficient with Dynamics and have them lead the interactive training sessions as well as to make themselves available for further help and questions in the future.
Do not underestimate how the perception of management affects new employees. Managers that are not engaged with Dynamics, or any other platform really, set the precedent that it is not important. For onboarding success, involve the whole team.
4. Seek Internal Feedback
Your employees are your greatest resource for meaningful feedback on the Dynamics system. The best approach in gathering feedback is multi-pronged:
1. Provide a forum where comments can come in free form fashion.
2. Set up focused feedback sessions where problems and ideas can be brainstormed together.
Focus in particular on the sales team — they will be the ones using Dynamics the most often. Ask them about their onboarding process with Dynamics and use their tips and strategies for new employee training. Regular feedback collection is important as it helps to find new areas of improvement in Dynamics management and onboarding. Establishing this feedback loop allows the training system to constantly refine itself.
5. Focus on ‘Why’ Instead of ‘How’
Knowing how to accomplish various tasks using Dynamics is important, but explaining ‘why’ those tasks are done can lead to a deeper understanding of the system. The goal is to develop a big picture understanding of the entire Dynamics system.
In fact, employees who approach training in this way may actually be more efficient than their task focused counterparts. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, people who become overly focused on how to achieve a goal may have a tougher time completing the task than those who think abstractly about why they want to do it. Abstract thinking allows for clever workarounds, whereas linear based problem solving can go awry at the first complicated step.
We must think back to the first tip from this article and be sure that we are not overwhelming new employees. Small, chunk sized skills need to first be taught, but they should be presented in the context of bigger picture purpose.
Gradually building up skills will result in confident employees familiar with all the critical software protocols that your business relies on. Following these aforementioned tips will assist in a smoother Dynamics onboarding, as well as continued mastery and growth.