A recent blog I came across described how to make VoIP training interesting for employees. It covered off the need to make sure the many hours spent learning how to use the new technology are productive.
Too many trainers have not been trained themselves as frequently companies do not provide an adequate budget for hiring the right people to train. This leads to the issues raised in that blog and the unproductive hours spent learning. This certainly is not specific to VoIP. I have been involved in full-day training where I put in my time with the only result from the experience being I was eight hours further behind in my work. I have spoken with many people who had told me of their training experiences with people extremely knowledgeable about their product or service but with zero ability whatsoever to get that knowledge across. In fact, in one instance the trainer who was the product coordinator turned the group off the product so much that they actually worked against selling it even though it was critical to the future growth of the organization. The interesting part of that situation was that I spoke with the trainer afterwards and she complained that a number of participants were yawning, working on their Smartphones and generally being inattentive but did not appear to recognize that it was the method of presentation that was the issue, not the material itself.
With the problems surrounding training so prevalent how do we make sure training end users is as effective and productive as possible specifically as it relates to VoIP. Well the first step is to minimize the amount of training required. At the end of the day, if the end users do not need training so much the better. These days there is so much to learn (how many of you rely on your kids to teach you how to get the most out of your Smartphone) that really impacts your daily lives that having to relearn how to use a desk phone is almost too much to ask. Much of why BYOD is becoming such a topic of conversation is for just this reason.
If you structure your migration to VoIP to minimize the impact on the end user then the amount of training required decreases and the possible issues created are thereby removed. We have been told by many of our customers that when they migrate to VoIP using the Portico™ TVA™, Citel’s VoIP migration device, the end user does not see any changes. The backbone of the system changes in that the legacy handsets are now connected to a VoIP platform via the Portico™ TVA™ and disconnected from the legacy PBX. This change provides the customer with the benefits of VoIP technology but leaves the end user with the same handset and if preferred, with the buttons working exactly the way they did before. You are able to get the migration completed without the need for extensive training, reducing the confusion that that brings and the need for a good trainer. As the company gets more comfortable training can be undertaken to implement new services and features in a similar manner to how they were introduced previously. Now how’s that for removing worries about making sure the hours spent training are productive? Remove the need for training!!!