I spend a lot of time talking about the efficiencies of online training delivered by our cloud-based LMS, but I think it’s high-time I talked about the inherent value of in-person training, as well. Savvy has been providing living, breathing trainers to law firms for over 20 years! And, honestly, these experts are so good at what they do that a few of them have been snapped up as full-time employees by my clients. (No hard feelings. I get it… whimper.)
In some situations, a computer can’t adopt a firm’s protocols, can’t anticipate a learner’s needs, can’t follow the thread of a conversation to the next logical step, or simply can’t provide the human experience necessary to make learning fun!
Yes, in some cases, online learning is perfect! Think: orientations that have to be repeated every month, or ongoing learning paths that deliver learners to specified outcomes. But I have found that in-person trainings are most ideal for big software or hardware rollouts, such as document management system (DMS) trainings or Microsoft Office upgrades. Get the human in there for hands-on, in-depth trainings, and then get them out and let the online training take it from there.
Savvy Training & Consulting offers trainers who can visit your law firm and provide the following:
- Large group, classroom-based trainings complete with preorganized agendas and outlines, custom-built materials for your week(s) of learning, and trackable outcomes based on your firm’s expectations.
- Small group and one-on-one trainings to accommodate power users, executive teams, advanced learning and more.
- Roaming, desk-side support to accommodate individual questions post-rollout.
- Trainer Office Hours so that IT staff don’t end up answering simple rollout questions while they’re trying to manage a new system.
- And any other customized training that your firm needs!
When Savvy trainers help you rollout a new system or upgrade, their goal is to make your people so proficient that, not only are they comfortable using the new tool, but they are actually looking forward to using it!
4 More Reasons to Hire In-Person Trainers for Your Rollout or Upgrade
Now, let me make a special case for floor support beyond classroom trainings. After the big group sessions are done and you set everyone loose in the new system, consider the following benefits of adding roaming floor support to your rollout plan. Even one or two extra weeks of floor support can make a humongous difference to the IT and HR teams’ abilities to maintain productivity.
1. Sink-or-Swim Training Doesn’t Work
When you finally cut the life vests off your learners and throw everyone into the deep end, I’d argue that you need to send someone out in a boat to make sure they’re swimming! IT and HR professionals know as well as I do that law firm staff just want to get ‘er done. They are barely keeping their heads above water as it is (to continue the water analogy). When they run into a problem with their workflow due to one of your tech upgrades, they are likely to find a work-around or revert to old ways rather than seek out a training webinar.
Adding floor support to your rollout means that, once all of the initial trainings are over, you still have a trainer “floating” around on the floor, checking in with people, making it easy for them to ask questions from a pro and get the immediate answers they need.
2. Personalized Training Is More FriendlyWhen you add floor support to your rollout program, suddenly it’s much easier for the meek legal secretary to ask, “I have a question about mail merge.” Or the know-it-all attorney to say, “Remind me how to access the templates.”Additionally, if you have a learning management system (LMS), your floor trainer can automatically enroll individuals in the classes or learning paths that will most quickly help them to achieve their goals. This also takes a load off of YOU, madam IT professional or mister HR expert. When the questions are getting answered before someone calls you, you have more time to think about your big goals!
3. A Floating Trainer Wins Friends, Multiplies Productivity
With a trainer floating from desk to desk or department to department offering help, suddenly your people have a Johnny-on-the-spot resource to help them keep their work moving forward. Further, once a few people have success with the trainer, they’ll talk about their experience to others and the impact will multiply weekly. The proper workflow techniques get shared and more people will consistently use your new technologies correctly.
4. Attorneys Need Help but Won’t Ask
Perhaps my favorite use of floor support is in handling attorney needs. Attorneys are notoriously awful when it comes to technology training. They either won’t attend the classroom trainings at all or attend with half their brains, checking their phones constantly and racing out for lunches or meetings. Floor support takes the training to them. Your friendly trainer can pop in and say, “How’d you do on that brief the other day? Did you store it properly in the document management system? Any glitches you’d like to tell me about?” Attorneys are entirely more likely to get the help they need if the help comes to them.
If you’d like to discuss how Savvy’s in-person trainers could help you in 2019, contact me today!