Posted by
Barry Siskind
UFI Community Manager
In a fast-moving economy where product obsolescence happens in as little as six to twelve months; where exhibitors demand a better return on their exhibition investment; where people you are attempting to attract to your fairs have changed; how does your staff keep up? The simple answer is training. But, what training?
One terrific solution will be found on March 3rd 2010 in Taipei when UFI hosts its education event called, “Best practices in onsite education for the exhibit industry” (Ufi.org/taipei2010education.) It seems a perfect time to open the discussion to this crucial issue?
What are the obstacles you are facing with staff training?
How often do you retrain your staff?
What training technologies have you found work best?
Let us know.
[…] January 25, 2010 Posted by Barry Siskind UFI Community Manager In a fast-moving economy where product obsolescence happens in as little as six to twelve months; where exhibitors demand a better return on their exhibition investment; where people you are attempting to … Continue reading … […]
We train our staff regularly not only in terms of new skill, but also for the “refreshing of the brains”. We have several types of trainings: internal training for new staff (so called “cadet course”), front office (sales and marketing staff) “refreshing” training every 6 months (with an invited coach), etc. I think that “hard skills” like CRM software, marketing techniques and so on, could be obtained rather at a working place. However, “soft skills” like personal communication techniques, time management, personal goals management, etc., need an external coach.
The vital importance of training and professional development for staff clearly came to light for us a few years ago after we had gone through a period without setting a priority on developing new programs. The “awakening” came in the are of health and safety and was definitely a call to action. Two years of concentrated efforts focused across the grounds at all staff levels on health and safety have made a significant impact on the delivering of services. Our education program for health and safety was so successful that we are using the same process to reinvigorate our customer service program. Some of my key thought on the success of these programs:
Lead from the top of the organization
All employees at all levels are included
Variety of modes of learning /teaching – in classroom, “lunch & learn” sessions, keynote speakers, small groups sessions, all employee sessions, on the show floor – everyone learns in differnt settings
For our customer service program as describe by Valerii above, all staff sessions led by an external expert have been key to its success and we intend to continue these on a quarterly basis into 2010. In 2010 we have also introduced to our organization an Employee Action Team to assist senior managers with setting directions and goals in customer service.