Research by Training Magazine revealed that American companies spent $61.8 billion dollars on training expenditures in 2014—an 11.7 percent jump over the previous year and clearly the most since the recession. Companies are feeling confident that increased training will pay off in the short term and in the long run. The improved job market is also spurring this increase.
Quality, effective training plays a role in how franchises perform. With locations spread across the country, companies face a hearty challenge: Teaching employees skills and procedures that foster success. Many of these organizations are adopting tablet training technology to help them conquer this challenge. The potential of devices such as iPad or Surface is finally being realized on corporate level and is trickling down to franchises. Here are some ways to increase franchise performance using tablet training technology:
Improved Efficiency
Though overall expenditures may be rising, companies still are seeking to maximize their training initiatives—to ensure employees learn as much as they can in the timeliest manner possible. Training technology that employs tablets provides a means to achieve this efficiency. For starters, digital content—especially video content—is a far more effective teacher than traditional printed training materials. Also, tablets offer a measure of portability and convenience that a bound manual or a desktop computer (or even a laptop) simply don’t. Finally, employees, particularly younger employees, respond better to training on an iPad than with other methods. Add it all up, and you will discover workers who embrace training initiatives and come away with deeper skills.
Improved Consistency
Products, services, and processes may vary across franchise locations. Some of this is inevitable, but it shouldn’t be a result of inconsistent training. Customers prefer that their favorite menu item tastes the same at one restaurant as it does at another in the same chain. Training technology on tablets can standardize the procedures and processes that every franchise location receives. For example, if corporate changes something in a recipe, that information can be delivered to every applicable iPad in the company, with notifications attached so that the employees who are affected by this update are sure to receive the information. Content can be pushed to—and pulled back from—tablets this way, thus increasing consistency company-wide.
Successful Rollouts
Companies spend immense resources researching, developing, and marketing new products. Franchise locations are the final cog in making rollout a success; tablet-based training technology can give your stores a boost in this endeavor. Every procedure necessary to implement a rollout can be sent to a franchise’s tablets, from how to prepare a new menu item to how to set up a store display for a debuting retail product. Marketing efforts will bring customers into a store for a new item; training technology helps ensure the rollout is ready so they aren’t disappointed.
Best Practices, in Progress
Ideally, training procedures will be clear to every employee at every location around the country. In reality, workers will have questions and comments about the content they are learning. And so they should—front-line employees may be best positioned to determine what is and isn’t working. Tablet-based training technology offers a means not only to ensure this feedback is received and potentially acted upon, but also for workers nationwide to collaborate on making processes and procedures successful. In this way, employees are creating and contributing to their own best practices, which will ultimately increase job performance across the company.
How difficult is implementing training initiatives across your company’s franchise locations?
