"9-keys" is an insightful series of "How To's" that addresses vital issues that any business owner can benefit from. They are:

• Seek the best people
• Train your staff to be more effective
• Improve your workers' effectiveness
• Effectively manage your time
• Assess the true value of a business
• Selling your business
• Buying a business
• Avoid bankruptcy
• Determine your break-even point, your point of diminishing return and manage for profit

As you are already aware, many of the negative occurrences in your business are due to inadequate training of personnel. If all were properly trained, customers, vendors, and employees would all have a better experience with your business. Under the stress of dealing with daily crisis, the business owner is often too time pressured to provide anything but superficial training.

All too often, new employees are trained by fellow employees who were in turn minimally trained by the very people they were to replace. No wonder people malfunction at work when as new employees, they are merely hastily shown what to do. Even if the employees who were selected to be trainers know how to effectively perform their jobs, they may not have the ability to train another person.

Without being trained as a trainer, most senior employees and even owners are not able to convey a true understanding of the job's requirements. Despite what has been said, the business manager does not need a formal training program.

You can achieve positive results by simply having a properly written job description.

Because employees leaving the company may be so angry at the company that they might spitefully teach the newcomer the wrong things, it is essential that a written job description be the reliable guide for new employees. Frequently, managers are not aware of the bad habits or misinformation one employee passes on to others. In too many companies, even those with as few as five employees, bad habits can perpetuate themselves at a level below the awareness of the manager.

You have made significant investments in facilities, equipment, and inventory. Make an investment in effective training. You should devote time to indoctrinating your people to their responsibilities, and not let bad working habits or poor training procedures minimize your business' potential. It has been proven that people perform best when they fully understand the task and not just the small part the employee deals with.

The first step of the training procedure should be a tour of the whole facility with descriptions of what is done in every area so the trainee can get an overview of everybody's task.

A simple drawing describing where everything can be found has proven to be an enormous help in quickly adapting new staff to the business' needs. The specific requirements of the individual employee's task should be written in a personnel

policy and procedure manual before the training begins. New employees should understand who their supervisor is. Part of the training should be a clear understanding of company policies and procedures and management philosophy. It is best if these too can be written in the personnel manual. As an example of the effectiveness of proper training, insurance companies will attest to the value of automobile driver education courses. Would you trust an untrained driver with your

$40,000 car?

Why then do so many owners trust untrained personnel with their valuable business? To summarize: map your facility; write down your policies; invest your own time in training your staff, and you will better serve your customers, have a more harmonious work life, and a more profitable business.

By Gerard Major