Education and Training

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by: johnwayne89
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Word Count: 804
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2011 Time: 8:40 AM
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Many people don't understand the main difference between education and training. Education is giving out information and communicating for your trainees. Training is all about practice and building skills. Today's younger generation of employees wants to learn, not educated.

Problem is, if we don't educate them before we train them, it might lead to problems. Consider how you learned they are driving. You'll need knowledge of the laws and so the actual training of getting driving. Same can probably be said for learning about the birds and the bees--if the training part isn't done effectively, the training can lead to undesirable results!

Mark Flores, director of ops for Chuck E. Cheese's, uses the macaroni-and-cheese example to demonstrate the difference. We've all made mac & cheese lots of times within our lives, but when we do not follow the instructions exactly, we might get macaroni soup, crunchy macaroni, or something else apart from what we should intended. Just how will we deliver education and training to make sure consistency?

Manuals. Boooooooooring! We do need documentation, but make it fun! Include tons of photos and minimal text therefore it is more of a comic strip look. People are more prone to remember the things they see versus the things they read, so retention of knowledge is better. Additionally, it's easier to translate into other languages.

Videos. Better than reading for many employees, however they need to be short segments (3--5 minutes maximum) with a lot of visual image changes. Our employees today are utilized to watching CNN with talking video, a crawler message along the bottom, and also the weather forecast about the side--all with four online chats with their friends. Long, drawn-out videos lose their attention quickly. Watch a segment and go practice what you learn. You can view the next segment after that.

Online. Golden Corral, White Castle, Sea Island Shrimp House, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Chuck E. Cheese's are using or testing e-learning. Since it is self-paced, it is going at the speed from the learner. Be careful: As we have seen with e-books, it isn't too comfortable to see a book on the PC, so keep the text low. Review questions can be built in as a checkpoint for the learner to succeed to another section. Great way to replace video and print, but it's still not "training."

Tests. We all hate tests! To make sure consistency in tests, have them simple and visual (use as many pictures as you possibly can), and use multiple-choice, ordering, or true-false format to ensure consistency in grading. The majority of our employees no longer take fill-in-the-blank or essay tests. Ensure they've the fundamentals down. Do all of your trainers actually grade tests exactly the same way?

All of the above types of "training" are actually just education, yet most managers think it's training. We didn't get our license after reading it, watching the recording, and passing a test--we had to demonstrate our skills towards the authorities before we received permission they are driving. Education may be the necessary evil that has to come first, though.

Do we follow the same format with this employees? A lot of companies do not--we just memorize a bunch of useless information the guest cares little about after which we're ready. You have to be validated on the skills it takes for the job and re-validated periodically later on. Understanding the job and performing are two entirely different things--and the guest notices.

Skill Validation

Having the new employee demonstrate skills for a manager teaches you two things: how good the trainer was, which the employee can perform the functions from the job. We all may think we now have exactly the same definition of "greet the guest" or "suggestive sell," but when we have seen our employees in action, we find it's all regulated across the board. If we do not coach them through the skill, they will simply do what they see at other restaurants (which frequently isn't good). Conduct these validations every 90--180 days to maintain standards top of mind.

People train people. Simply because someone is a good employee doesn't mean they'll be a great trainer. The correct tools to educate will help, but the payoff is in the trainer demonstrating, coaching, and validating the skill of a brand new employee. As one example of this time for your team, ask your trainers to train yourself on how to tie your shoes or put on a shirt. Act like you know nothing about this. Point being, it's a simple task we are able to all do in our sleep--like ringing up orders or making burgers--but it's incredibly hard to train someone else how to do it.

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