Review The Training Of Positive And Negative Companies

Which are you?

Is your company’s training doing enough to build a positive culture in your company?
 
Few companies address that question. They seem to assume that training and company culture exist in separate spheres. Training only teaches skills, right? Culture is something that just sort of happens, right? They never stop to think that training can help determine whether a company is a positive or a negative place to work.

When company leaders start to think that way, they are missing out on an opportunity to build a better workplace for employees.
 
Yet there are ways to cross that great divide. Let’s look at some of them.

Reposition training in positive ways. Instead of having sexual harassment training and calling it that (which is negative), you can it “Respectful Workplace Training” and also train people how to be respectful to others (which is positive).
 
Train on the 5 to 1 rule.  The 5 to 1 rule is simple. Your managers look for and provide 5 positive forms of feedback for every one negative. This helps the employee feel supported and more open to listening to comments about areas they need to improve.  A simple technique like that can go a long way toward reducing negativity and high employee turnover.
 
Trumpet your company mission, vision and values.  Start with new hires, review the company's mission, vision and values, and talk not only about what they are, but why the company has them. Create ongoing training programs to keep the company's mission, vision and values fresh and integrated into the company's culture.
 
Train managers to lead by example instead of giving orders or instructions. When supervisors are visibly engaged in what they are doing, their attitude can transform any organization. And the concept of leading by example is something that can be trained.
 
Turn the training lens on internal customers. Should you train employees to serve your external customers? Of course. Yet you can also use your training to encourage people to provide exceptional levels of service, respect, attention and consideration to the people they work with. It’s another small change in training that can produce a major improvement in company culture.
 
Increase training’s focus on soft skills. Many companies focus only on hard skills about how to do a function. Focusing on soft skills can be very productive. For instance, use customer service training to teach employees to support your company’s belief in delivering superior customer service. Remember, soft goals like those can be measured as effectively as hard metrics can. When measuring customer satisfaction, for example, you can review customer satisfaction ratings, your Net Promoter Score and other ratings. 

As you look around your company, do you see people who bring a great attitude and positive energy to everything they do? If not, your most important priority should be to change it. And training is a great place to start.