Coaxing and Coaching: Software Training Best Practices for Employees
The key to making new software rollouts successful is good training.
- By Melody Hollis, Maureen Mallach
- Feb 01, 2022
For a construction executive, the reasoning behind purchasing new software—improved productivity, streamlined operations, automated processes—seems obvious. However, many employees shudder when company management purchases new software and struggle with questions like: Will this new software replace me? Will it be too complicated for me to ever understand, so I lose my job to someone more tech-savvy? Why do we need to change things when I was happy with the way things were?
The key to making new software rollouts successful is good training. Coaxing and coaching employees toward new tech tools is about more than just using the software well; it’s also about change management, understanding processes as they stand and what will change in each employee’s day-to-day once the software is implemented.
Savvy executives typically purchase the training offered by their software vendor, as they not only know their own software well, but also have experience with hundreds of other companies and what worked for them—or didn’t. With your software vendor’s support, you can set up the software to work best with your business.
Software providers have developed proven processes for training new users. This methodology includes solid prep work, not just putting the software in place. The best software providers partner with new users to improve the relationship between the businesses, making the trainee feel they can reach out to the vendor at any time.
Successful training programs deliver a holistic approach to training that involves mapping all business processes to determine how the software will work within the customer’s business. Software is not “one size fits all,” and the training should not be either. Successful training programs involve all departments affected by the software, such as finance, operations, IT, executives, safety and engineering. The departments need to see how the new software will work in the business, how it affects day-to-day operations and what its benefits are.
Types of Software Training
Software training can be offered at the customer’s location, provided at the vendor site or made available virtually. There are many types of training available from vendors, but this outlines processes that have been proven to support customers’ success long-term:
Implementation Training. This training is typically offered by the vendor, sometimes included in the software price and helps you get started. Onsite implementation of software typically involves several days and includes planning, implementation and post-deployment phases.
During the planning stage, customers will work with a training professional to create an assessment of their company and define their implementation scope and requirements, as well as install the new software. The Implementation stage involves reviewing old and creating new processes, performing solution work-throughs, and building integrations with other software that will interact with the new solution, like accounting software. This phase will create action items, define requirements and conduct user testing until the entire software system is up and running. In Post-Deployment, customers receive follow-up calls from Professional Services and continuous education and technical support.
This article originally appeared in the February 1, 2022 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.