Empowering Front Line Staff
Training the front line staff in any organization is a critical part of the success of the business. Any members of your staff who deal directly with clients or customers are essentially the face of your business. If they represent the company in a way that is detrimental, it could affect the reputation of the business and future sales. Aside from implementing your own training materials, getting regular feedback from your office front line staff is also important, so you can make tweaks and modifications along the way to enhance the process.
The basic act of listening is one way that managers can get feedback to help front line staff training. Ask questions to staff members and listen closely to their responses, so you can make the process better. Since they are the ones who deal with the realities of the business on a daily basis, the concerns and thoughts they have are always valid. If you hear the same types of concerns or comments on a consistent basis, it may be time to make changes to the training process. It’s important to instill an “open communication” kind of policy for this to work effectively.
A variation on the open communication theme is to have meetings with just the office front line staff to let them provide feedback in a group setting. Sometimes, an employee who isn’t quite comfortable voicing an opinion on their own may feel more inclined with all of their coworkers present. Even in the group setting, the mood should be relaxed with the open exchange of ideas as the primary focus.
Of course, no matter how open you try to make the communication, some front line staff still won’t feel comfortable voicing concerns or complaints. This is where staff surveys become part of the landscape. Making the feedback process anonymous as part of a survey that every member must fill out will make everyone feel at ease and able to answer honestly. Be sure to leave space for any additional comments at the end of the survey, because after answering all of the questions, they may be ready to add their own comments. An anonymous suggestion box is also an effective form of feedback for front line staff to voice concerns.
Training the front line staff in any organization is a critical part of the success of the business. Any members of your staff who deal directly with clients or customers are essentially the face of your business. If they represent the company in a way that is detrimental, it could affect the reputation of the business and future sales. Aside from implementing your own training materials, getting regular feedback from your office front line staff is also important, so you can make tweaks and modifications along the way to enhance the process.
The basic act of listening is one way that managers can get feedback to help front line staff training. Ask questions to staff members and listen closely to their responses, so you can make the process better. Since they are the ones who deal with the realities of the business on a daily basis, the concerns and thoughts they have are always valid. If you hear the same types of concerns or comments on a consistent basis, it may be time to make changes to the training process. It’s important to instill an “open communication” kind of policy for this to work effectively.
A variation on the open communication theme is to have meetings with just the office front line staff to let them provide feedback in a group setting. Sometimes, an employee who isn’t quite comfortable voicing an opinion on their own may feel more inclined with all of their coworkers present. Even in the group setting, the mood should be relaxed with the open exchange of ideas as the primary focus.
Of course, no matter how open you try to make the communication, some front line staff still won’t feel comfortable voicing concerns or complaints. This is where staff surveys become part of the landscape. Making the feedback process anonymous as part of a survey that every member must fill out will make everyone feel at ease and able to answer honestly. Be sure to leave space for any additional comments at the end of the survey, because after answering all of the questions, they may be ready to add their own comments. An anonymous suggestion box is also an effective form of feedback for front line staff to voice concerns.