Bringing new team members on board often involves a lengthy onboarding process that includes software training. The HR department confirms that each new hire has at least a basic understanding of typical business software. But a company’s software, and the way employees use it, will have to be learned. One of our goals at Modest is to make such training as easy as possible.
The Modest model of building custom software for small business is to build around a company’s needs. We make a point to learn how a client does business so that we can design software that fits into existing workflows and processes. Not only does that make using our software easier, but it also makes training new employees easier as well.
With that in mind, we have put together a few tips for training new employees in company software. They apply regardless of whether you have chosen us as your software developer.
1. Utilize Developer Resources
The starting point is to utilize whatever training resources your developer makes available. Hopefully, your small business software was designed just for your company. Your developer probably has a variety of training resources you can tap into.
Even if your business runs on off-the-shelf software, check with the developer about training. You might get lucky and find printed materials, videos, and more.
2. Customize Training Sessions
We believe in customizing software for small businesses because we know that no two businesses are exactly alike. Try applying the same line of thinking to software training. Not only are there differences among individual members of your team, but they also don’t do the same jobs. Train them in your business software based on how they will use it.
Some companies develop their own training tools that align learning with existing processes and workflows. If you have someone on your team capable of creating such resources, they could ultimately be your best option for training new employees.
3. Explain the Whys, Not Just the Hows
There is a tendency when training new employees on software to discuss only how to do things. You teach them how to complete tasks. But it is often helpful to teach them why as well. When team members understand why things are done the way they are, it is easier to remember how to do the assigned tasks.
4. Designate Points of Contact
Even with formal training, learning new software can be frustrating. Oftentimes new employees are overwhelmed by the amount of information they need to absorb during training, so much so that they don’t know what questions they should be asking. The questions never occur to them until they actually get to work.
A good way to address this particular issue is to designate points of contact. These are people who are always willing to answer questions or walk a new employee through a confusing task. People designated as points of contact become software training mentors, as it were.
5. Incentivize Software Mastery
Finally, it is not unheard of for companies to incentivize software mastery through some sort of bonus, prize, etc. By incentivizing mastery, you are motivating new employees to apply themselves to training. That ultimately helps both you and them. The sooner they master your business software, the sooner they become productive team members.
Custom business software is what we do at Modest. We design and build software around the way your company already does business. Training new employees is up to you, but we trust that the custom software we develop will make training as easy as possible for you and your team. Contact us today to start designing your custom business software solution.