Truck driver training

Recently, I was speaking to a client about what baseline figures we needed to measure before and after his company induction training video gets released.

What I found interesting was that even though there are some key figures we can measure (eg: trends in customer complaints and accidents), as far as he was concerned the video was mainly a holistic training device to help in a number of key areas that were immeasurable.

In this company, they have 450 truck drivers who do a vitally important job.  Yet, other staff members in different departments and even the truck drivers themselves, do not realise how important this role is to the company success.

The training video has been written to let truck drivers realise how important their responsibilities are and the broader impact on the company itself.  This is part of the all-important introduction which clearly lets drivers know what the company does, who they serve, how their job role impacts the company, the importance of safety and their job responsibilities.

The induction video is a way of connecting emotionally to these truck drivers so they realise the importance of their ambassador role for the organisation while also ensuring the fresh and timely delivery of their milk products.  It also includes procedural tasks.

Interestingly, my client made the remark that the training video was really a different communication medium to ‘put life’  into their induction document.  And while it is important to train on procedures, it was more important to align the truck drivers with the broader perspective of their job and the company vision and values.

What pleases me, is that this organisation understands that training is not just about teaching the right processes, it is also about getting staff aligned with what the company does and why, as well as the importance of jobs.  It’s not just about delivering a product on time, it’s also about the being an important visible representative of the company.  After all, a truck driver that is discourteous reflects badly on the company reputation.  By letting staff know the greater meaning and importance of the job, the more they will see purpose in what they do which will result in better performance, but also better job satisfaction.

After all, a happy team is a productive team.

What can you do to your training materials to provide information about the importance of the job role and its relevance to the broader perspective to your company?

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of revising company induction manuals and what I have found is that just about every company makes the same mistakes in its training materials.

Given that the quality of your induction training can actually determine whether a new starter will want to stay or not, it’s imperative to have the best training materials you can.  So which of these common mistakes do you have in your induction training:

1. Provide text based training - This is when training is from training manuals or PowerPoint presentations that contain mostly text.  Studies by educational researchers have found that 83% of human learning occurs visually.  You can actually help people keep their brain active and alert to new information by providing visual information relevant to the training.  Use lots of colours, photos, diagrams and video content to better explain training concepts.

2. Talk in corporate speak - Avoid formal corporate language in your training manuals.  Workers at different site locations will know if corporate has written the training materials and they weren’t consulted.  This can make the training manuals seem less credible.  Make sure it is friendly and conversational – and welcoming!  Keep sentences short (17 words or less), use short words (5 characters or less) and avoid jargon.  And in this day and age of Twitter, keep it short and tweet!

3. Use negative language - Remove rules that focus on “don’t, can’t, forbidden”.  Remember induction training is you most teachable moment with a new staff member/contractor, so use language that is friendly and warm.  Let people know what they can do, rather than tell them about behaviour that you do not want.

4. Forget the How - This is when staff are told what to do but no explanation is given as to why.   Company processes are perpetuated without people ever questioning why they do something.  Over time, staff are taught processes that solve problems that no longer exist.

In order to boost retention rates and improve productivity levels, inducting right is important to any company who wants to improve the bottom line.

By making your induction training visually appealing and easy to learn, you will be able to improve your staff productivity and safety quite remarkably.

Start adding colour, video and pictures to your induction training materials and keep sentences short.  Where can you convert processes into more visually appealing training videos that will get the messages across better than just boring text?

By fixing these common induction mistakes, you will have people commenting positively on the quality of your induction training.