Business
Quality Business
Develop Your
Players Skills
By Tom Raffio
D
uring my more than thirty
years in the business
industry, I have learned
a thing or two about what
it takes to run not only
a business, but a successful one.
What follows is the second article
in a series of twelve that will
position any business for success.
In my last column I discussed how to
find the right employees for the right
position within a company. While you
are hiring dependable and capable
employees, you must also be willing
to take the next step in your
commitment to them by developing
their skills. At Northeast Delta
Dental, we regularly monitor what
training employees need through
evaluating performance reviews,
communicating with managers, and
we even ask the employee what they
would like to learn. From there,
we develop a training plan.
Depending on your business’s product
and your clientele, I suggest offering
training that will help your employees
do their jobs more efficiently and
effectively. For example, we offer
dental terminology courses and
training for employees to earn or
maintain professional licenses and
certifications. We also have a
substantial repository of helpful
books and other materials related
to anything from business savvy
to retirement planning.
Don’t forget that managers need
training, too, as they must be able
to mentor and train their employee
colleagues. We train our managers
on situational leadership so they
are able to deal with others in
a non-cookie-cutter manner.
This has been especially
helpful in recent years as there
has been a greater number of the
millennial generation (born in the
early 1980s to early 2000s) entering
the workforce and the baby boomer
generation (born in the late 1940s
to early 1960s) is slowly retiring.
Because of this, we train our
managers to understand these
generational and cultural differences
– especially because the millennial
generation has started to
transition to managerial
roles, and often times, this
requires baby boomers
to report to
an employee
colleague who
is younger
than they
are,
something that may be uncomfortable
for both parties at first. The training
we offer allows for all employees
regardless of race, gender, age,
religion or a disability to be coaches
and mentors -- not dictators.
Employees want their managers and
co-workers to respect them and see
them as individuals and not just as
people who exist to get a job done.
If you are utilizing
financial and
human resources
on training,
I recommend you
monitor
how
you
are
doing and determine if you are
achieving the goals of the employee
and/or manager and if this translates
to success for the company. For
example, our customer service
employees receive about 300 hours
of on-site training before they are
answering customer phone calls on
their own.
The bottom line is: If you invest in
your employees, they will invest in
you. Another way you can develop
their skills and encourage them to
meet goals in their professional and
personal lives is through offering
a formal tuition reimbursement
program. When your employees
advance in their roles or earn their
degrees, you should celebrate this as
a company success story. My company
is fortunate to have many success
stories like this, and sometimes this
results in employees leaving the
company to advance their careers.
While you will miss these employees
and their contributions to the
company, instead of being
disappointed about it, we
celebrate with them and note this
as a “promotion outside of the
company.”
In summary, any successful
business needs to demonstrate
a commitment to its
employees. If you invest in
them through training and/
or tuition reimbursement,
they will always remember
you for this. It will make
their work lives easier and
you can rest assured knowing
you are giving your employees
the tools and encouragement
to be successful in
their personal and
professional lives.
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