Spilling the T’s on What Makes Training Stick

Terminate Your Turnover with the Three T’s of Training - SuperPumped Business Episode 043

Ben Walters: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me today on the SuperPumped Business podcast, and we continue our series on how you slay the turnover dragon, how you reduce turnover in your business so that you boost your profits, boost your happiness, and have the business that you really want in your life. 

Ben Walters: And so there's kind of three parts to reducing turnover. The first part is really getting after it when it comes to recruiting, and that's, there's a whole section on that. Go back to previous episodes about that. But then the bridge between recruiting and retaining great workers is your onboarding and training process. And the very first part of that is onboarding means get them on board. That is a kind of a precarious time where people are feeling you out as employees: whether they wanna stay with your company, whether they wanna jump to a different offer, just all of that.

Ben Walters: Last week we talked about in training, the Goldilocks principle and [00:01:00] just a quick review, but go back if you didn't catch that episode. The Goldilocks principle with training is you want to support them, and train them, and give them that training love long enough that they feel comfortable doing the job, but not so long that they come to believe that they can't do it on their own because they've been doing it with a trainer too long. And I share a couple stories about my brother as well as a couple of stories from my own businesses. So the Goldilocks principle of training is: make that porridge, that training porridge just right. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right down the middle.

Ben Walters: Today I wanna talk about the three T's of training. And this is something I have learned the hard way in my own businesses . Often we, we miss our own blind spots. We operate as if the entire world operates with our same mindset. The reality is that isn't the case. What I [00:02:00] find with trainers is trainers often operate out of the same mindset that they have in their life. There are three Ts to training and another way of putting it is there are three ways that employees, as you onboard them, begin to get comfortable and productive in your business.

Ben Walters: So for me, as a, a hard charging type, a grinder, right? In my training, what do I wanna focus on with a trainee? I wanna focus on tasks, right? I wanna focus on, this is the work that we have hired you to do. This is what you are doing and how you are going to do it, right? And if we equip you to be able to do those tasks well, you're gonna feel confident in, in our business, and you're gonna be able to be a productive worker . So often we think of, of training kind of as, as creating a widget. That a widget can, you know, clean a [00:03:00] building, or make a latte, or run the proper profit and loss reports, or process payroll for us on a weekly basis, or whatever that role is for our company.

Ben Walters: And that all comes down to those tasks which somebody's gonna perform. And so I would say that most companies, when they hand off a new, onboarded employee to a trainer, that trainer is focused on tasks. And as a trainer myself, that's where I really put a lot of my emphasis. But what I've learned over time is that just mastering the tasks for a new employee is not enough because there are two other T’s, that for many new employees, matter more than the actual tasks.

Ben Walters: So beyond the tasks, you have got to train up your people on the terrain. Now, what do I mean by that? What I mean is the physical layout of [00:04:00] your business, your facility. This doesn't apply as much if you're virtual or online, but if you have a physical property where you operate and where you are expecting this new hire to operate, you have got to get them comfortable with the lay of the land. So they need to know when they come on that first day, where do they put their lunch? Where's the bathroom? Heaven knows we don't go eight or ten hours without going to the restroom, right? So where's the restroom? If they're a smoker, where do they go out to smoke? Where is it allowed to smoke? Where are they not allowed to smoke? Where do they park their car? Do they park right up front in the CEO's spot, or are they off in some satellite lot? Because that's for the customers and there's a parking shortage. So where does that occur? Then, where's your office? If they need help, where do they go or where do they go for HR or [00:05:00] all of those things? They need to know the lay of land.

Ben Walters: In our commercial cleaning business, we often had cleaners who did a specialized task. So they might just dust or they might just do restrooms. Well, we had one particular account, it was actually a, a large vocational school. There were four different buildings on that campus. And so those cleaners were expected to navigate four different buildings as they cleaned. Well, in each of those buildings, one, they've gotta learn where they go in, 'cause not all doors are unlocked. Then they've gotta learn where's the cleaning closet? Then they've gotta learn, you know, where is the supply closet, which is often different than the cleaning closet. Where do they get backup toilet paper, paper towels, trash bags, that kind of thing. So they need to learn that. And then where are the actual restrooms located within that building?

Ben Walters: If all you're doing is teaching people the tasks: here's how you clean a restroom. You're gonna start with the mirror, and then the sink, and then you're gonna clean the toilets, and then you're [00:06:00] gonna sweep the floor, and then you're gonna mop the floor, and then you're going to empty the trash and put a wet floor sign down at the entrance to the restroom. If all you teach them is the tasks, but they are overwhelmed with the terrain, in other words, they're like, well, I would do a good job, but I don't know where the cleaning closet is here.

Ben Walters: Think about that. You throw 'em in there and you say, okay, these are the tasks. Do ou understand it? And they show you they can do the tasks, but then they can't find all the restrooms, or there's an executive restroom located in room 301 in the very back, and it's a private unisex restroom, and that gets missed every day, guess what happens? You start getting customer complaints. And you know what your manager does? They come down on that employee and they say, come on, we trained you on how to clean a restroom and you haven't cleaned this restroom in forever.

Ben Walters: Do you know where the gap is? The gap is in the fact that you didn't teach them the terrain, and oftentimes what I found is people need to know that terrain [00:07:00] before they can actually start being productive on the tasks.

Ben Walters: Initially as a trainer, I started out just fixated on tasks. Tasks, tasks, tasks, tasks, as I onboarded people. Then I was like, oh, they need to understand the building. They need to know where they were going to perform said tasks. But there was a third blind spot that I had, that thankfully my wife was very helpful in enlightening me on. And that third part of training, and this is a critical one for us, is called the tribe.

Ben Walters: Now, what do I mean by the tribe? What I mean by the tribe is, these are the people and the players that work alongside that new employee. And there are people who are very relational, such as my wife, who are less interested in the tasks or even learning the building. They wanna know who's in that building. So the first thing they wanna do is learn names, and [00:08:00] learn positions, and learn who works there and how many kids they have, and what their hobbies are, and what they love about the company. Until they get comfortable with who they're working with, they're not particularly interested in the tasks or even the terrain.

Ben Walters: And yet so often, at least for me, early on, I was banging my head against the wall because I'm like, why are these people washing out? And what I came to realize was, we weren't acclimating them. We weren't onboarding them to the rest of the tribe. Maybe their break in the break room, instead of being 10 minutes and getting to know two people maybe for someone whose mindset is all about tribe and the people they're working with, maybe you need to spend 30 minutes in the break room and introduce them to five, or six, or seven people each night so they get to know those folks. They begin to form human connections. They begin to feel comfortable [00:09:00] with that organization and the people that make it up.

Ben Walters: If you want to onboard your people, you have got to remember the three Ts of training: There are the tasks, which most of us focus on, there is the terrain, which we put less focus on, but equally important, and the third and forgotten piece, that critical T if you want to slay the turnover dragon, is helping your new hires feel a part of the tribe, feel connected to the rest of the tribe.

Ben Walters: If you can equip your people with understanding and feeling confident in the tasks, the terrain, and the tribe, you are on your way to having them not only make it through that first day and that first week and that first month, but keeping them for that first year and even that first decade.

Ben Walters: If you need help in your business, slaying the turnover dragon, onboarding your people, training them up and [00:10:00] getting them productive, long-term assets, hit me up, I'd love to talk. I'll see you next time.

Ben Walters: Thanks for joining me today on the SuperPumped Business Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, I have two quick next steps for you. First, subscribe or follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. And second, jump on over to superpumped.com to find out all the incredible ways we can help you launch your SuperPumped Business.

Ben Walters: Keep well and I'll see you next time.