If you are anything like me, you just don’t have time for preparing training materials. Action items such as making a syllabus, creating lessons for new members, setting up lunch and learns, and teaching new people your company way can be difficult to coordinate. Here are three tricks that we have learned over the last two years that are paying off in spades.
- Assign it. Someone must own training. Dynamic Edge needs new people to be trained quickly and efficiently. Last year it hit us: training was a reaction to a new person getting hired. Since then, we have made tremendous strides in the rest of our services to make them proactive while training just sat there as a reaction. We have two weeks to prepare for the new member to start, and it still seemed like a surprise every time. Here’s what we did to address this: made someone own it. We now have a DynEducator who maintains our training materials and is always ready for a new DynEdger to start. We even keep a couple of welcome packets all made up and ready to go.
- Document as you go. Create the plan for next time. Often we have to blaze a new path. Especially when you work in technology. So how do you keep your training up to date? You develop it as you go. Here’s an example: we have a new position that required leadership training. A few of us brain stormed and talked to other business owners. We identified two books that we wanted to incorporate into the training and put together a very high level plan. Then we documented our meeting discussions and created a syllabus for next time. This way the next person that needs training, we can follow the plan and we won’t have to reinvent the wheel. This leads to more consistent training, which leads us to the next point.
- Video. Consistency is key. We learned early on that if we wanted our customers to have a great experience we needed specific processes and discipline. It seemed like we forgot this when it came to training. Today, our entire 60 day training process is done by video, check lists and tests. We even had all of our team members go back through and get consistently trained. This has led to a much higher understanding of our goals, our core processes and our direction as an organization. If you don’t have the tools to create your own training or would like our help to get you started, contact Lisamarie, and she will be happy to share our processes with you.
Last month, Bruce covered the basics of working in Microsoft Word 2013, including using styles, inserting pictures, and generating a table of contents. But what if you want to know the really tough stuff? Good news! He’s back again this month with MORE important Word 2013 tips!
This month Bruce is going to discuss how to:
- insert symbols and equations
- automatically insert text using AutoText and AutoReplace
- restart or continue page numbering between different document sections
- add watermarks (such as DRAFT or DO NOT COPY)
- create mail merges using Word and Excel
- print labels using built-in templates
- update and modify styles
- …and more!
This is probably one of the biggest and most costly misconceptions that many business owners have. Usually this is because they’ve been fortunate enough to never have encountered a major computer related disaster, but that’s similar to someone thinking they don’t need to wear a seat belt when driving a car because they’ve never had an accident.
Computer networks are complex and dynamic systems that need regular updates and maintenance to remain operational, running fast, and problem-free. In fact, it’s surprising how fast a brand-new computer will slow down after a few weeks or months of use without the proper updates and maintenance. Here are just a few of the critical updates that need to be done on a weekly – if not daily – basis:
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Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that the weather has been turbulent. Devastating may be a better word. I’m not talking about the weather as a metaphor for the economy this time. I am talking about how the weather is taking a toll on businesses around the globe and in our back yard. In 2010, devastating floods struck Nashville. Downtown Nashville was dark for days. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded New York, and a substation exploded, plunging lower Manhattan into four days of darkness. A year later, Typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful storm to ever make landfall, killed more than 6,000 people and caused over $14 billion in damage in the Phillippines. Storm season is starting right now. What are you doing to protect your business? Could you make it through a 3 or 4 day power outage? How would you communicate with your customers? Email? Nope. It would be down too.
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Cloud computing is a concept that could save your business quite a bit of money on software, hardware, upgrades, and services.
Rather than purchasing hardware and software for your office, you can use cloud computing to put your programs on a highly secure “super server” online. All you need is an Internet connection to your office and you’re in business.
There’s a good chance that most of the software applications you use every day are now “software as a service” applications. In other words, you don’t have to install them on your server or PC – you simply access the software as a pay-as-you-go model for only the licenses, space, and features you use. This gives you the ability to access highly sophisticated software and functionality at a fraction of the cost – or even for free – and without long-term commitments.
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Are you wasting time trying to find your favorite features in the latest version of Microsoft Word? Not sure what a footer is or why you might use one? Looking for more ways to collaborate? Want to create a table-of-contents that automatically updates?
We’ve learned that the key to maximizing productivity with Word is simple: know what is available and where to find it. During this FREE one-hour webinar, I will share tips, short cuts and time savers to help you work more effectively in Word 2013.
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