Strengthen Retention with Online Employee Training
Employee turnover has consistently been an issue for residential cleaning companies. But it's not just a cleaning industry problem anymore; it's one all industries are facing. That means the competition for good employees is high.
How do you build a team that is loyal to your company and won't leave you high and dry because they were offered 10 cents more an hour from your competitor? One way business owners are battling turnover is by offering online employee training to strengthen retention. That's because ongoing employee training has a direct correlation to employee retention.
Benefits of Online Employee Training
Millennials now occupy the largest share of the American workforce. More than a third of employees are 20 to 36 years old, and it will reach 50% in the next three years and 75% by 2025.
You know by now that Millennials are the tech-savvy generation so the more technology you can incorporate into their job the better. Here are some of the reasons you'll want to start incorporating online employee training into your engagement and retention plan.
Convenience—Online employee training can be accessed anywhere, anytime, and on any device, making it easier than ever for your employees to access training. If they can't remember how to do a particular task, a quick peek at a training video can refresh their memory. And gathering the team together at the start of their shift to watch a short video is a convenient way to provide ongoing training.
Engagement—Online training tends to be more interactive than the old-fashioned way, which relies heavily on team leads showing them through the home, explaining how to do the tasks, and then setting them loose to go clean. Online employee training can get them engaged from the start, especially if you make it interactive. For example, watch a section of video with the new employees, discuss it and have them perform the task in a classroom setting. This is ultimately more appealing than having to learn it all on the job.
Pace—Your employees don't feel so rushed with online employee training. Allow them to master the skill before they move to the next module. This will relieve some of the pressure they might feel with a more traditional training. And if you are grooming your team leads to become better leaders, you can assign a series of videos in preparation for higher level training meetings and discussions.
Individual or Group Training—If you feel that your employees would work better individually, online employee training will accommodate that. If they prefer to learn in a group environment, they can embark on the training together and discuss what they've learned. The training is customizable to your team's needs.
Why Invest in Online Employee Training?
You might be thinking that making the investment in online training is more that you can afford to spend. Is it really worth the money? Yes, if you have a plan and work the plan consistently. In fact, you can even calculate the ROI of your employee training with a simple formula.
Take a look at some of the stats related to employee training:
- In 2015, 44% of companies said they intended to purchase online learning tools and systems to stay ahead of their competitors. (2014 Training Industry Report)
- Knowledge retention is 25-60% with online employee training versus 8-10% for one-time face-to-face training, per the Research Institute of America.
- 42% of companies that use eLearning say that the training led to increased revenue, according to Ambient Insight, Worldwide Mobile Learning.
- Companies that utilize eLearning technology achieve an 18% boost in their employee engagement, says Molly Fletcher Co.
The Difference Between Training and Development
Many people use the terms training and development interchangeably. But there is a difference that should be considered when planning your employee training programs.
Training is a short-term activity to help employee learn the main functions of their job. Most cleaning companies revolve their training around short training activities such as how to clean kitchens and bathrooms, how to vacuum and mop floors. And although this basic training is necessary, it's the companies that invest in their employees' long-term development that are doing a better job of retaining employees.
Development is a more long-term plan to help you and your employees achieve future-oriented goals. Business owners use this strategy to develop strong employees into team leaders and managers.
Development is about teaching new skills and also helping them to think more strategically and consider the big picture when making decisions. It gets them thinking about the ramifications of their behavior and decisions, especially when they take on leadership roles. It pushes them beyond what they might consider their capabilities to be, enabling them to consider what they're able to do in their professional life as well as their personal life.
When you own a business, not only are you responsible for leading your team by example, but you must involve yourself in your team's training and development. Begin by developing your team leaders an managers so they can help you lead the team to success.
And remember that just because it's called "online employee training" doesn't mean that you can simply sit them down at a computer screen, have them watch videos, and then take a test. Get involved in their training and make it interactive. Discuss each video, see how they scored on their test, review the questions they got wrong, and ask them what they learned in the process.
Leading Your Team for Long-Term Growth
It's not easy to make the decision to put more time and money into the training and development of your team.
Frustrated cleaning business owners who have dealt with employee turnover problems in the past can be especially skeptical as to the success of additional investments in training and development. Why invest when they're just going to quit anyway, right? This mindset is what starts the cycle of high employee turnover that has become the trademark of the cleaning industry.
If you keep expecting to see better results from your employees but don't make any changes in the way you train, you're going to be disappointed over and over again. I challenge you to start looking at your company in a different light. Don't think of it as "just a cleaning company," but think of it as a training company, where your primary job is to groom and develop talented people.
Consider Jancoa; they're a commercial cleaning company that sees themselves as "Dream Managers." They help their employees achieve their dreams, both professional and personal. They realized early on that having a cleaning job is merely a stepping stone for most people, so they made it their mission to make their employees' time with the company a great experience; not just while they're working, but as a means to a happy ending. They assist their employees by helping them reach their next goal, and then they send them off after an average of 3-5 years with the company. It works for them, and their employee turnover rate is very low.
Perhaps you could take a slightly different approach. Why not create a reputation for your company as being the employer that takes the time to engage its employees with training beyond anything they've experienced before?
Yes, your employees will eventually leave, as they do with Jancoa. But you can feel better about the fact that you helped to develop them into a productive member of the workforce, and maybe even a strong leader allowing them to pursue their purpose in life. For some employees, it may mean staying with you and helping to grow your cleaning company. For others, it might result in moving on to a new opportunity. Regardless of the outcome, your new mission becomes positively affecting other peoples' lives.
When it comes to developing your best people so they become better team leaders and managers, make a point of scheduling regular group meetings to discuss training and video topics. Discuss what they learned from their training and how these lessons will translate into their day-to-day jobs. This leads to deeper discussions that further engages them and teaches them more than passive training ever will. The more they're engaged, the longer you'll retain them. The longer you retain them, the lower your new-employee training costs will be, and the more productive your long-term employees will be. Your team leaders will also have time freed up when they're not micro-managing new employees all the time.
How You Can Deliver Better Training and Development
You could develop your own training programs from scratch, but what business owner has time to do that? Some companies use eLearning sites or LMS (Learning Management System) sites, but that's a spendy proposition for a small business owner. Larger companies might have the resources to invest in sophisticated proprietary LMS systems or in training sites that house literally thousands of training videos, but these sites charge tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of dollars to set up all your employees on their platform – depending on the size of your business.
How You Can Get Affordable, Online Employee Training
MyHouseCleaningBiz.com has an award winning LMS training and development site to offer cleaning business owners top of the line training from professional training providers on topics ranging from Home Cleaning and Safety training, HR compliance, Leadership and Management, Business Skills, Customer Service and Sales, Marketing and even Software training.
We have developed a new Premium Membership subscription that includes access to all the training and resources MyHouseCleaningBiz.com has to offer cleaning business owners – PLUS – access to the entire library at Clean Smart University.
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