5 Tips To Bridge Your Team’s Gaps With Performance Management LMS
The typical job experience is to do an interview, make the grade, meet your direct supervisor, and get to work. You might even be introduced to the CEO. But if it’s a large organization, you’ll only interact with your immediate chain of command. That covers the people you answer to, those you supervise, and your peer-level workmates. Often, the person you report to will micromanage, leaving you no scope to show your expertise. Or they may manage so remotely that you can’t tell how well (or poorly) you’re performing. How can continuous learning and LMS address these issues and help your team bridge personal performance gaps?
1. Begin With Feedback Training
The trouble with many corporate situations is communication. Specifically, hurt feelings. In some ways, this is cultured. But in all of us, there’s a relative tendency to rankle under criticism, however well-intended or justified. Early in the process, teach trainees how to (give and) receive feedback. It’s a lesson in diplomacy that can save their career, possibly even their life. When giving feedback, focus on the action itself, and on taking responsibility. You want your feedback target to recognize what they did (or didn’t do) was wrong. Then you need to offer ways to fix it. But if feedback leaves the person themselves feeling attacked, they won’t objectively take it in. You can also train staff on feeling less “guilty” about offering feedback in the first place. Get them to focus on positive results rather than awkward exchanges. Also try, “When you do X the result is Y” rather than the blame game of “You made Z happen!”
2. Move On To Pre-Assessment
We generally think of this step as part of the job interview, but it should precede any form of training. Before you sign people up for a course or even create the course, do a needs assessment. Staff members can respond to surveys or do light self-evaluation quizzes. The idea is to take the stress off and keep things as fun and forthcoming as possible. This makes trainees more likely to respond honestly. And don’t make it a one-off. Periodic individual assessment keeps you familiar with shifting training needs among your staff. You might ask them what they do for fun over the weekend. And whether they have any hobbies they can co-opt at work. Follow up by finding out which pleasurable skills they’d be interested in learning or improving. You just might spot a closet polyglot who could join the translation team.
3. Offer Personalized Paths
The next logical step is to design a curriculum. You have broad strokes, based on their job description and background prep. Work with the trainee on their career progression chart, showing them what positions they could grow into and what courses they need to get there. At any point, give trainees the option to switch paths and customize a new career journey. An accounting intern might realize they’re better at PR or front-desk work. Continuous training will help them recognize their career shift, and tailored LMS scheduling will help them get there as well as detect emerging gaps that stand in the way of achieving their true potential.
4. Provide JIT Support Tools
In past decades, you got a job and stayed there until retirement. So, it didn’t matter if your heart, temperament, or skillset wasn’t in it. You were stuck. Today, employment diversity gives us more options and offers more room for work-life balance and job satisfaction. You don’t have to stay in a job you don’t like, and quitting isn’t the only way out. Online learning and convenient staff assessment could give you a departmental shift that solves everyone’s problems. And at any stage in this process, whether you’re migrating or upgrading, you can get moment-of-need help. A well-run LMS can offer just-in-time resources in any scenario. Whether you’re preparing for an interbranch compliance exam or negotiating with customs to get your delivery truck across state borders. (Quick tips on licensing and language can both help here!)
5. Include Post-Assessment Too
Unlike one-time courses or annual compliance reviews, continuous assessment is forever. It doesn’t stop at the end of a course or chapter. But before you proceed, you want to be sure your learners have grasped what went before. Continuous learning and LMS can help you design summaries and evaluation tests to verify knowledge transfer. They can also guide L&D on which courses to recommend next, and which training areas require further elaboration. Aside from end-of-unit quizzes, tailored reports can be useful for generating and structuring all that Big Data. Report templates will guide you as you format information into intelligible chunks.
How A Performance Management LMS Will Assist With Job Development
Continuous learning sounds like something high schoolers both love and hate. It takes off the pressure of big exams, but it also means they can’t rely on last-minute cramming. In the workspace, it ensures staff members consistently gain and improve job-related skills. Its performance management component also builds better bosses. First, teach everyone from C-suites to subordinate staff how to give and receive constructive criticism. Pre-assess staff members before suggesting they take a(ny) course. Work with them to list their own ideal course path. Let them know they can discuss and change it at any time based on their evolving goals and roles. Regularly use exit quizzes to test the quality and quantity of learning. And don’t forget your JIT resources to bridge the pesky hidden performance gaps that hinder workplace productivity.
After you identify your training needs and gather input from your team, it’s time to find the right performance management LMS. Begin your search using our online directory to compile a list of worthy contenders. You can even filter results by essential features, use case, and price model to invest wisely.
Download our eBook Continuous Learning For Remote Teams: Top Tips To Find The Right Software to extend training to every stage of the employee journey.
