Training is Not Always the Answer

Certain issues that affect employees can only be resolved by a change to a company process, policy, etc. For this reason, when preparing for your training, you need to to determine whether the issue can truly be fixed by training. Many times it can, but sometimes it can't. For instance, if your company can't afford new equipment, training is not going to help an employee better hear customers through an impaired headset.

It can save you considerable time, money, and grief to know the difference between what is and what is not a training issue. What's more, it can help you to decide on a course of action that will solve the problem.

Following are some additional examples of training and non-training issues.

Examples of Training Issues

• Agents don't know how to operate the telephone system.
• Agents are unable to calm down customers who are frustrated with a price increase.
• Agents need better call control skills.
• Agents need better confirming skills.

Examples of Non-training Issues

• An agent's computer is damaged.
• Customers are angry about a price increase.
• Agents are late to work on a regular basis.
• Agents are using insufficient software.
• Commission structure doesn't support sales goals.
• Agents know how to do the job but aren't inspired to do it.
• Agents' monitoring scores go up after training but start to drop over time.

Sometimes, there can be an overlap between training issues and non-training issues. For instance, let's say one of your call center agents is having difficulty keeping up with her workload. Maybe some training could help her address the matter but then again maybe she has too much on her plate. In this instance, the solution would be to give her less work-undoubtedly a non-training approach.

It's possible that once a training issue has been addressed by training, it will continue to be a problem. At this point, training can no longer fix the issue. In most situations, it becomes a coaching issue. For example, let's say an employee is having difficulty using correct grammar and spelling in his e-mail messages to customers. He gets some training, but doesn't make any improvements. He now needs to be strictly coached to perform at a decent level.