New Hires

[system]

We will be opening our second location in about a week. Monday we start training our new crew.
Anyone have some fun ideas on how to go about this?

Monday they all come in but unfortunetly our oven will be delivered around the same time, so samples are not an option at least the first day.
I was going to go over policies, job descriptions etc. BORING how can I make it a little more interesting?

 

[j_r0kk]

Definitely have little rewards on hand (i.e. candy). Throw them out to someone who answers a question correctly or participates in a discussion with intellect and knowledge of the subject matter.

Split the group into little groups and create a competition between the groups when it comes time to cover something really boring. Make sure you reward the winning group. It’s always better to create as many “projects” between groups as possible. It helps retention rate and makes it a little more fun for the students. Hope this helps. -J_r0kk

 

[system]

Well I thank you for replying I was hoping you would.

Candy??? Really, most of them are around the age 18-21 you think candy?

I am trying to get my creative mind going but it is really blocked(perhaps it is the stress of thinking we are actually opening soon and my list of things to do just gets longer and longer and longer.)

Any other ideas?

Thanks for all your input Jrkk I have really appreciated it the past few months.

 

[pizzaguy]

BEER

 

[wa_dave]

How about movie tickets.

I don’t know if you do it there but here we buy discounted books of “movie money” tickets. They cosy about $12 vs $15 buying over the counter. We buy them in books of 10.

I used them a lot when I was in sales (sales manager) for staff motivation, doing a good job, trying hard, etc and my wife uses them in her work as well.

I find them a good motivator especially coming up to Christmas with all the new releases coming out.

 

[j_r0kk]

Candy??? Really, most of them are around the age 18-21 you think candy?

Yup, candy. Throw out a Snickers bar or a Twix bar or some M&M’s. They’ll laugh and pretend they don’t care but watch them as they play around trying to act cool but also watch as they want to be the first one to get a “question” right. They’re truly listening, AND having fun competing for the Twix bar or whatever.

Now, if your budget is a little higher than 89 cent candy bars, then you can go into bigger rewards like logo-wear (if you’ve got it) or T-shirts, or any kind of small gifts. But, above all else, create competition and you’ll create a learning atmosphere. You teach like in a classroom and you’ve got almost zero retention. -J_r0kk

 

[system]

Anonymous:

Well I thank you for replying I was hoping you would.

Candy??? Really, most of them are around the age 18-21 you think candy?

J_R0kk is right on the money here, I am a certified technical trainer and during the “train the trainer” classes they suggest you do this not only to keep people interested but to break the boredom. They also suggest randomly tossing some candy into the crowd to wake them up when they seem like they are starting to drift off.