* This article is part of a White Paper called “The Road to Successful Software Adoption.”
Choosing and purchasing the right business software are important decisions within the life of any enterprise company.
Each platform, whether an ERP, CRM platform, HR software, or something else have to be carefully weighed and evaluated as to which might be the best fit for the company, in terms of functionality, accessibility, pricing and more.
Yet, once the decided on which software to choose, discussion and strategizing turns to how to effectively implement the software and to onboard new users. To be clear, I am talking about a difficult, complex and time-consuming process, one which is far from a guaranteed success.
Even in the cloud era, when SaaS software has become a dominant force in enterprise software, implementation isn’t a walk in the park. Here are some tips to help you strategize training on the road to successful software adoption:
The Basic Principle:
Keep Training Short; Do Not Give it Too Early; Give a Test at the End
Continuous Learning:
Training does not just mean sending employees to a training class early in the project and then dropping that.
Even if classroom training is less of your focus, implementing more e-learning in the initial training period, it’s important to remember that training should be ongoing and frequent.
‘Continuous Learning’ as it is sometimes referred to in the world of employee training. In other words you need to adopt a strategy towards training.
Proper Timing:
Too much information, given all at once and too early, will just make people forget what they have learned, when the software goes live.
People are human, and they learn by repetition and through practical application of the knowledge transferred to them.
A better strategy would be as follows. Give a short, initial training period, focusing only on how to perform a few key processes, getting onboarded, and to focus on the big picture sales (or marketing or customer success) strategy.
But do NOT focus too much on getting every process right immediately. As mentioned, forgetting as soon as the initial training period ends is an issue.
Once the initial training period ends, focus on a performance support strategy. Performance support technology helps to put forward the accurate information and admittance to that information into the hands of your personnel, at the most appropriate time as and when it is required by them.
Performance support technology is basically aimed at arming your workforce with some tools so as to increase their output on the whole and help them to successfully perform the job assigned to them. It is objected to provide the most suitable quantity of task leadership, help and efficiency benefits to the employee exactly at the time of need.
Instead of extensive classroom sessions and long video tutorials, employees are placed on the front lines and work a typical day. They are then given tools that help them tackle practical tasks and learn how to address them in real time, exactly in the moment of need.
There are certain programs out there that are designed for this specific purpose, and can be paired with other training techniques to promote a faster learning phase.
Bonus Tip:
Utilize software like WalkMe, which provides direct and onscreen assistance in the exact moment of need.
WalkMe provides a series of real-time instructions that enable the user to successfully learn and perform any software task, no matter how complex. This allows user to get up to speed to begin working quickly, while still being able to quickly and simply retrieve necessary information when they need it.
Due Diligence:
There needs to be due diligence, meaning give a test, to make sure people have been paying attention. Close monitoring of user success, particularly in the early stages – provides a good analysis of what seems to be working well and where there remains room for improvement.
Demonstrate Value:
A key point though is to make sure that training directly correlates to task performance. Make sure it is not too theoretical or complex. Keep it simple and directly relevant to everyday tasks. In that way, managers and employees will succeed.
This article is part of a White Paper called “The Road to Successful Software Adoption.”
Claim your free copy by filling the form below.
The White Paper covers a range of topics, including:
Chapter 1: Get Organized
Chapter 2: Data Migration and Conversion
Chapter 3: System Integration
Chapter 4: Functional Testing & Unit Testing
Chapter 5: Strategize Training
Chapter 6: Documentation and Support
Chapter 7: Monitoring and Analytics
