Getting Training Messages to stick can be Tricky. This New Report reveals the Key Factors behind Successful Staff Induction Training and how to implement them.

Melbourne, Australia (July 26,2010) – Digicast Productions, a safety and induction training video production house, today released a new white paper “Optimising Induction Training: Reduce Costs, Improve Quality and Talent Retention”.   Around the world, many companies train new starters and contractors ineffectively often finding it difficult to get training messages to stick inside people’s heads.  This paper outlines the impact of poor induction training, the high cost of face to face training and the growing importance of including visuals in training materials.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of human learning occurs visually, yet the majority of companies produce text based induction training materials that have a 10% effectiveness rate on recall levels.

Smart organisations who regularly need to train contractors and new staff are looking for a more streamlined, engaging and cost effective way to ensure staff absorb training messages.

This exclusive white paper addresses the various pitfalls of a poorly designed induction training process and what can be done about it.  The report looks at:
•    What current induction training programs are really costing companies
•    The importance of avoiding a poor safety culture
•    The emerging trend of using more visuals in communication
•    How to make training messages sticky
•    A little mistake that cost a Quarry $20,000 a year

For a complete copy of the whitepaper, download it now.
About Digicast Productions

Established in 1991, Digicast is an Australian vendor of customised safety and induction training videos.  Thousands of people each year worldwide are trained with Digicast training videos. For more information, visit Digicast or The Workplace Improver blog for training tips.

Contact Marie-Claire Ross
Digicast Productions
+ 61 3 9696-4400
mc@digicast.com.au

###

Related posts:

1. 7 Tips to Improve Induction Training Materials 1. Use more Visuals - 83% of human learning occurs...
2. We’ve won a Gold Award for Best Use of Video in a Training Program LearnX Asia Pacific 2010 recognizes Digicast Productions as producing induction...
3. How to Improve On-Site Inductions For many companies, both large and small, new contractor or...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

According to a recent article at Working Nights, companies that have implemented a shift work lifestyle training program tailored to their company needs receive overwhelming benefits for both employees and the company.

On average, shift workers generate more more health care costs than other workers.  Shift workers experience an increased risk of a range of diseases such as cardiovascular, obesity and sleep apnea.  Their social and personal life are also effected by their working hours.

The good news is that the health of shift workers can be improved with the right training.

In addition, it has been found that employee morale is higher amongst companies that provide shift work lifestyle training.  Nearly, 60% of employees at companies that provide shift work lifestyle training rank their morale as good or excellent compared to 35% for staff at companies without shift work training.

Other benefits include:

• A reduction of health care costs between 17-37%.
• Reduced safety incidents
• Reduced worker’s compensation premiums
• Increase of worker productivity by 39%.

In extended 24-hour operations, a well-designed shift schedule or roster is unlikely to provide adequate protection from worker fatigue.  An integrated risk management system incorporates data analysis and training towards an effort of reducing fatigue and reducing a company’s costs, risks, and liabilities.

To find out more about shift work training, click here.

Related posts:

1. Oatmeal – The Secret to Good Health for Shift Workers According to the Worker’s Health Centre, studies show that shiftwork...
2. The Fatigue Calculator – Preventing Workplace Accidents The Centre of Sleep Research at the University of South...
3. Company Meditation – Chilling out for productivity Recently, I started a meditation course.  I’ve actually been meditating...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Delivering Happiness is one of those business books you just can’t put down.

Since hearing about the rise and rise of Zappos (the online shoe and clothing retailer) that was sold to Amazon last year for $1.2 billion in Amazon shares, I’ve been very interested in hearing about what they do.

I expected this to be another business book by an over-achieving, cocky CEO with an over-sized ego to match.

After all, how many 23 year olds do you know that have sold the company they have built to  Microsoft for $265 million?

But Tony Hsieh is different.  Way different.

He spent his time at Harvard choosing courses that had the least work and effort so he could sleep and party (sounds a lot like the group of uni pals I hung out with back in the day, except it took  us a long time to get our careers happening).

After graduating and getting a highly paid job at Oracle doing very little, he and his friend left to start a web design company.  Except they realised that it didn’t excite them.  They then started LinkExchange which grew and grew into a large company within only 18 months.  When it was no longer fun, they sold it to Microsoft.

With lots of time on their hands, they invested into 27 companies including one called Zappos.  When they couldn’t get further venture capitalist funding, Tony Hsieh stepped in as the CEO and also poured in his remaining money from the LinkExchange sale.

What’s fascinating about this book is how long it took for Zapppos to become profitable and how it very nearly didn’t even look like it would survive.  Through trial and error it finally made money.

Zappos is known for its amazing customer service.  Tony goes through how this evolved (my favourite part of the book is that rave culture actually influenced the core values) inlcuding how it was the pursuit of happiness that has set the corporate culture.  He goes into a lot of detail about the core values and how they ensure staff are matched to their values.

For those involved with motivating, training and retaining key staff this is the book for you.  It is very insightful and a great read.  For any budding entrepreneur or general manager of a large organisation, this book will help your realise the importance of company culture and how to nurture it.

You can find out more about the book at:
http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com

http://www.amazon.com/deliveringhappiness

For those of you interested in getting a free copy, I have one available.  Email me at mc@digicast.com.au

Related posts:

1. Why telling Stories is important for Company Induction Training Those of you who have read my posts know that...
2. Workplace Happiness (image credit: Perantu Sepi Lodge @ flickr) With so much...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Those of you who have read my posts know that I’m a big fans of telling stories to indoctrinate staff and contractors (see Telling Stories to improve Company Inductions).

In his book Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership, Harvard professor Howard Gardner wrote, “leaders achieve effectiveness largely through the stories they relate.  Stories must in some way help the audience/team members to think through who they are and frame future opinions”.

One of the best ways to induct new staff is for senior managers to be involved and to be seen getting involved.

The ex-CEO of Virgin Blue airlines, Brett Godfrey, would always turn up to staff induction training to introduce himself.

And while it is important for senior managers to introduce themselves and welcome new starters, they also need to talk about legendary company stories.  It’s a great way to improve the safety culture, customer service and pride in the company.  Also, particularly useful for welcoming staff from a new merger/aquisition.

Film them!

It’s a surprisingly simple, but effective way for new staff to know who the senior staff member is and to feel like they know them.  It also saves the CEO or Executive General Manager a lot of time.

We have filmed many senior managers welcoming new starters and giving their own personal introductions.  It’s warm, funny and believable.  And it’s a great way to start an induction training video.

Related posts:

1. Telling Stories to Improve Company Staff Inductions (Part 1) Company induction training is all about communicating the company’s core...
2. Why induction training programs are so important to company success According to research by Recruitment Solutions in April 2007, 47%...
3. Telling Stories to Improve Job Inductions (Part 2) According to an article by Steve Osborn in The Safety...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Do new staff feel undervalued in your company?

When it comes to  inductions common complaints are that they are ‘boring’ and ‘overwhelming’.

They also represent the only first impression that you get with a new employee.   This is a great opportunity to align them with your company values and processes and make them want to stick around.

In this fun and informative presentation, you will find out what most companies are doing wrong during the induction process and what you can do to make your company a leader in safety inductions.

You will learn seven ways to instantly improve the induction processes in your company.

These great tips will help you to improve your safety culture, productivity and engage your new staff/contractors with clear and consistent training materials.

For those of you serious about improving the quality of safety training in your company or welcoming new starter or contractors, this event is not to be missed.

Wednesday 16 June – GOSH

Royal Geelong Yacht Club

6.30 – 9.00pm

Monday 26 July – Southern Safety Group

3 – 4.30pm

Protector Alsafe Premises at 41 Greens Road Dandenong

To find out more or register, click here.

Related posts:

1. Why telling Stories is important for Company Induction Training Those of you who have read my posts know that...
2. Five Induction Trends that can put you out of business Getting new starters up to speed as quickly possible should...
3. Why induction training programs are so important to company success According to research by Recruitment Solutions in April 2007, 47%...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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.

Related posts:

1. Five Induction Trends that can put you out of business Getting new starters up to speed as quickly possible should...
2. The Importance of Using Visuals in your Training Materials In a recent AFRBoss article, it was cited that an...
3. Why telling Stories is important for Company Induction Training Those of you who have read my posts know that...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Do new staff feel undervalued in your company?

Getting new starters up to speed as quickly possible should be the goal of every company.  Yet, sadly, most companies tend to induct new starters with boring reading materials and little training support.

Making new hires feel welcomed and valued needs to be the principal induction objective for every company.

Why?  Here are five reasons.

1. First impressions count - Inductions represent the most teachable moment you will even have – so use it wisely.

2. Induct well or perish – 25% of new starters make the decision to leave in the first week of work.  Some reasons include “boring”  and ” sink or swim” induction processes.

3. 47% of new employees leave after 90 days – 60% of respondents in the Recruitment Solutions survey indicated that improvements to induction are a priority area to stop new talent leaving.

4. The cost of early leavers is high – It can take as long as six months to get a return on your investment after a new starter leaves.

5. 54% of companies surveyed by Taleo Research have inconsistent induction training.  This has a big impact on productivity and also your safety culture.

The faster new employees get up to speed, the faster they can contribute to your bottom line.

And with a talent shortage forecasted to be at the end of the year, it makes sense for companies to overhaul their induction process now, to ensure that they are the company people want to work for.

And improving your induction process doesn’t have to be difficult.  Sometimes, it can be as simple as introducing formal inductions that includes as much visually appealing training materials as possible, to improve engagement.  This can be as easy as including photos and diagrams in your training, as well as training videos.

Related posts:

1. Why induction training programs are so important to company success According to research by Recruitment Solutions in April 2007, 47%...
2. Free Seminars – Seven Induction Tips for Improving Company Inductions When it comes to  inductions common complaints are that they...
3. Why telling Stories is important for Company Induction Training Those of you who have read my posts know that...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

According to the Worker’s Health Centre, studies show that shiftwork and shifts with extended hours can have significant adverse effects on health, workplace accident rates, absenteeism and a worker’s personal life.

Over 70% of men and 50% of women working shift work are overweight.   Due to altered eating habits when working shift work, workers often experience higher rates of gastrointestinal problems, including indigestion, heartburn, or stomach ulcers, constipation, diarrhea and gas.  Other issues include increased heart diseases, social problems and increased error and accident rates.

Working Nights, an excellent blog on, well, working at night, talks about a recent study in the journal Obesity that has found that when we eat may be more of a driver of weight gain than what we eat.  This obviously has significant impact for shift workers.

In the study, mice were fed a high-fat diet during the time they’d normally eat, the regular day-time hours on their daily circadian cycle, gained 20% in weight over six weeks. But mice fed the same high-fat diet during hours they should have been sleeping gained 48%!  This new study was initiated to consider the potential impact on at night shift workers, who eat the most of their daily food intake during hours when humans are usually sleeping. The researchers believe that findings for people would be consistent the results within the mice population.

But there is good news!

Working Nights has also published some information about a new study by scientists at the University of Illinois that has found that soluble fiber, found in oats, nuts, and apples, strengthens the immune system and reduces the inflammation related to obesity-related diseases (e.g. diabetes and heart disease).  These results will appear in the May 2010 issue of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

The bottom line is to enhance their immune systems, shift workers should consider the amount of soluble fiber they eat.  Of all grains, oats have the highest proportion of soluble fiber.

Working Nights suggest that  shift workers need to stock up on high fiber nutrition bars.  These are easy to pack for consumption while working at night.  Our bodies’ digestive system slows down at night, even if we’re awake working.  So, employees working the night shift should eat light meals.  To read more about the importance of eating the right foods when working shift work, click here.

Companies who have shift workers should consider making oat based bars available to their workers through vending machines.

Personally, I think that all shift workers need to eat porridge for dinner just because it’s yum!  Add some chopped nuts and sliced apple and you have a great meal that your body will thank you for.

Related posts:

1. Shift Work Lifestyle Training According to a recent article at Working Nights, companies that...
2. Why Vitamin D is necessary for workplace health Office workers, underground miners, night shift employees and aged-care workers...
3. How Wellness in the Workforce Improves Company Productivity EHS Today recently reported on a survey undertaken by Buck...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Recently, I started a meditation course.  I’ve actually been meditating daily for nine years, but was persuaded by a close friend, to do this amazing meditation course led by a Swami.  Given that I’d never had any formal training and that I’ve always wanted to meet a guru, I signed up without a second thought.

So far what I have learnt is, I actually do know how to meditate, meditation CDs are very good.  But meditation is becoming extremely popular, almost mainstream!  There were no hippies in the room, in fact there were 86 (yes, that’s not a typo) very normal, middle class people learning how to meditate in a beautiful house in Melbourne.  And yes, the Swami is very good (and funny).

Meditation is a growing trend.  The Herald Sun reported on how meditation is now moving into the boardroom with numerous studies showing that it improves concentration.  Businesses such as NAB, Victoria Police, Diabetes Australia, Origin Energy and The CEO Institute are now running meditation sessions for their staff.

According to research by Medibank Private, workplace stress costs the Australian econony $10.11 billion through poor productivity and absenteeism.

Under the Workplace Health and Safety Act 2004, companies are responsible for implementing stress management programs.  In Victoria alone, the average cost of a stress-related work claim in 2009 was $51,000.  So it makes perfect fiscal sense for companies to introduce company meditation courses to improve stress levels and productivity of their workers and ensure they reduce their work claims.

Given the need for companies to reduce the stress levels of their workers, introducing meditation classes is a great way to help workers and boost morale.  It’s only a matter of time before meditation is readily accepted in the workplace, as a quick way to alleviate stress and improve productivity.

Related posts:

1. How Wellness in the Workforce Improves Company Productivity EHS Today recently reported on a survey undertaken by Buck...
2. The Fatigue Calculator – Preventing Workplace Accidents The Centre of Sleep Research at the University of South...
3. Why induction training programs are so important to company success According to research by Recruitment Solutions in April 2007, 47%...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

1. Ensure that there are common goals between management and staff. One way to accomplish this is by defining desired outcomes for the unit/business and measuring the unit’s or business’ success towards accomplishing those outcomes on a regular basis.
2. Explain why. Many supervisors just tell their staff what to do. However, informing them why tasks are done a particular way, or why certain behaviors are required goes a long way towards eliminating worker/supervisor friction, ensuring that the tasks and behaviors are actually done correctly, and that improvements in the workplace occur through suggestions from workers who are performing those tasks on a regular basis.
3. Be results oriented. Many workplaces value time over results. However, unless a job function is time-based (e.g. customer service phone representative), reward the results of someone’s work more than their face time on the job. A worker who works a normal work day but produces high quality output and new ideas is more valuable than the worker who spends more hours at work but produces lower quality work and has fewer new ideas.
4. Promote balance. Many workplaces want their employee’s top priority to be their job; over family, over enjoying life, and maybe even over life itself. In my opinion this leads to employee burn-out and many employees eventually working on “auto-pilot”. The best employees are employees who have a balanced life. Whether they balance work with family, playing softball, donating their time to a not for profit, or going to the movies is irrelevant. When an employee has balance and works for a business that promotes balance, when that business needs him/her to go through a period of time where work comes first, they will do it and be effective.
5. Demand the best. Don’t accept workers being just okay. Remind them that they weren’t hired to do a so-so job. They were hired and are being paid to do a good job.
6. Hold workers accountable. Your workers are adults so treat them as adults. Don’t act like an enabling parent. Don’t accept excuses, don’t allow them to slide through, don’t allow them to point fingers. You’d be surprised how holding workers accountable results in good workers performing at their best and feeling fulfilled at work; and bad workers (probably performing a lot worse than you realize) quitting or starting to look for work elsewhere.
7. Reward properly. This means both rewarding the right people and rewarding them appropriately (no big reward for a small accomplish). This includes verbal praise as well as tangible rewards such as raises and bonuses. Nothing disrupts the smooth operation and effectiveness of a workplace more than the best workers not getting the recognition/rewards they deserve. Therefore you need to be aware not only of the actual performance of your staff, but their perceptions of who are the best workers. Then you need to take steps to ensure that their perceptions coincide with your employees’ actual performance by communicating what you value.
8. Encourage creativity. Not everyone is creative. Therefore, creativity needs to be part of “going above and beyond” not part of the expected work product unless a person’s job is a creative position (e.g. writing advertising copy). That means that creative employees may not be creative on the job since it isn’t part of their standard job functions. So encourage creativity by always responding positively to creative suggestions (unless they are clearly ridiculous) and reward useful creativity with excellent rewards.
9. Provide ongoing feedback. Don’t leave your employees waiting for their annual review to know how well they are performing on the job. Also, don’t wait for them to ask how they are doing. Provide ongoing feedback; positive feedback to your top employees (but also include areas where they can improve) and constructive feedback for others (don’t just let them know they need to improve, but give them steps to take to help them improve their performances). Also let your employees know that they really need to worry when they are receiving no feedback from you. For the under-performing employee, lack of feedback on their performance means you do not think that employee can improve, so you aren’t wasting your time talking to him/her about his/her job performance. This is also a good way to send a message to employees you would like to look for work elsewhere.
10. Build an effective team. All managers obviously promote teamwork. However, there are some who build teams of workers who all have skills and knowledge that overlap their own, but at a lower level. Other managers build teams with workers with skills and knowledge that compliment their skills and knowledge. You would be surprised how many take the first approach since they either are intimidated by employees that know more than them in a specific area, or they do not have confidence that they can make good management decisions on topics that they are not knowledgeable on. However, that is not the way to build an effective team. Build your team with employees that have skills and knowledge that you do not possess, and have confidence in your ability to think logically and make solid management decisions.

Related posts:

1. The Importance of “Why” in Training When we were all young children, we all used to...
2. Why do men feel the urge to insert sexual terms into workplace training materials? Back in the early 90′s, there used to be an...
3. Free Seminars – Seven Induction Tips for Improving Company Inductions When it comes to  inductions common complaints are that they...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.