Here are some tips and tools to draw talent from your team

You've heard it and you know it: training is critical to your operation's success. It will reduce turnover, improve morale and help you deliver your product consistently. Thousands of books have been written about setting up training programs and training good trainers.

Still, most of these overlook some tricks of the training trade, tools found outside the mainstream of training circles. That is what we're covering here.

First, you must understand your training mission. Training is covering all situations in a job and preparing employees to handle those situations. The new employee is in a strange environment with many responsibilities. Your goal is to remove the surprises from the environment and rid the employees of their fears.

Start with yourself. Practice training. When you perform a task, take an employee with you to train them at the same time. Imparting knowledge to others, even if it's only a few minutes here and there, will improve your own confidence and expose you to the many different ways employees learn.

Life is too short to be a do-it-yourself project. Solicit training ideas from everybody: employees, customers, family and friends. Network yourself. Check out the American Society for Training and Development (http://www.astd.org). Don't forget suppliers, purveyors and local agencies. Suppliers will conduct training classes for your staff on how best to use their product. Police departments can provide training on a variety of security issues, and Fire Departments can train on fire safety. Worker's Comp carriers often loan educational materials to clients.

Now it's time to put your training program together.

Instruct employees to take a self-guided tour of the facility before you start training. Let them experience the guest side of the business and interact with current employees at their prospective job sites. Interview them afterward about the experience; what they liked, what they didn't like. Refer back to those experiences during training.

Give employees the job function guide (or checklist) to read before training starts so they have some feel of their responsibilities. Assume new employees (or new to that particular job) know absolutely nothing. You must begin training from the very first step.

Prepare a list of training topics. Stick to your list. If you add a procedure, retrain your current employees on the new process. Long-time employees develop unique habits and procedures, so do not ignore "veteran" retraining. Pattern your program around the primary employee age group. Keep it basic for your "first job" employees. With a more seasoned employee, let them know the program is geared for less-experienced employees to assure all points are covered.

In the amusement business, parks want guests to form a positive picture of the facility. This requires what we call Negative Training: looking for and solving the negatives so guests do not encounter them. The trick is to resolve the negatives, but not instill a negative attitude within your staff.

A new employee is most impressionable during the first 24 working hours of employment. This also applies to personnel changing jobs within the company. It is critical that you mold good work habits in these first few hours. Even better, start molding them before the first few hours. Training employees before they begin their first day of work is the perfect way to eradicate those "bad habits" that have crept into your operation. If all employees receive the correct information, when employees talk among themselves they will paraphrase proper information.

Take training task by task. Train the employee so well they can perform a task without thinking about it. After they have mastered one task, start them on the next. A training session is complete not when the trainer has completed the presentation but when the employee understands the task and can demonstrate he or she knows the information.

Look for "Learning Moments." A learning moment can occur when an employee is new to the job, asks a question or has a problem. These are the moments an employee is impressionable and open to training. Embrace these moments and answer your employees' questions or concerns. When questions go unanswered, the employee will no longer ask. If you cannot answer the questions then and there, get the answer quickly and get back to the employee as soon as possible. The Learning Moment may be brief, and, once lost, it may not come again.

Along the same lines, never cancel a scheduled training session.

Are you opening a new operation with little time to practice before the first day? Rely on "Dry Training," talking an employee through the work process without the benefit of all the equipment running. Before you open that new ride, walk your employees through a dry run of all procedures and get them familiar with the ride itself. You must still schedule live training (all power on, everything working) before an employee is certified to work the job function. Do not let a new employee work unsupervised until both you AND the employee feel comfortable.

Employees will not be working in a classroom but will be working in an environment with noise, distractions, sights, sounds and guest personalities. Train on the basic job knowledge in a classroom, train on the application of that knowledge at the site.

But don't train in front of guests. This is rude to guests and does not allow the employee to receive training information in the order you wish to present it. Call employees in early or ask them to stay a few minutes later and devote that extra time to training.

New employees should first be trained on team rides, where a lead can observe their performance.

Limit a new employee's first day to four or five hours so they do not get overwhelmed. Consider the first work week as training necessity. Never start new employees on the busiest day of the week.

Though you may need to share the training load and use mentors, be careful using veteran line employees to train. Simply sending a new employee out to watch the old masters work is also a policy rife with potential pitfalls. The new employees may pick up bad habits or bad attitudes from senior employees. A new employee watching an old employee sees the job being done at full speed and may doubt his or her own ability to do the job.

A qualified instructor should do the training so the employee will receive the information at a comfortable pace. That instructor could be a veteran line employee, but only after they are fully trained in training techniques.

The instructor should talk the employee through the job, pretending they cannot perform the work for the employee. After the employee understands the mechanics of the new job, then he or she develop speed by practicing. If the trainer DOES have to perform a function for the employee, immediately let the trainee execute the function to get a physical handle on the task.

Establish the final work performance you expect. Slogans might help. Example: "If there is time to lean, there is time to clean".

Train on philosophies and ethics. This will help employees make the right decisions in your absence. Inform employees about your business pet peeves.

Train your staff to remain alert during slower operational times. With the park at capacity, employees are working in an efficient manner and fewer errors take place. During slack operating times, guests' and employees' attention could wander and incidents could occur.

Don't presume that, because the employee has already worked for the company, the transfer employee currently knows many company facts and procedures. No matter where the employee came from, start the training from scratch.

Cross training is a delicate art. A cross-trained company has less accountability on the final performance, and conscientious employees sometimes carry too much of the load. It also requires more retraining when one member of the team quits. Cross training is effective with the right mix of workers and leadership, but consider a policy of one person, one job, one responsibility.

Listen. My grandmother said, "You have two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you talk". Get feedback from employees on their training. Encourage suggestions for improving the process.

Poor performance doesn't always mean the employee has a problem. Question yourself first. "If the student doesn't learn, it may be the teacher's fault." Inconsistent or incomplete training could be the cause. If many employees are struggling with the same issues, it could be that a procedure has changed since training was initiated and retraining is needed.

If an employee is doing work improperly and does not snap to attention when he or she spots the supervisor observing, the problem may be training. Lack of knowledge means skill retraining is required; apathy means motivation is needed. Observe the employee over a long period. One bad day does not indicate that training was ineffective.

Tests are a measurement of training efficiency. Honest employee answers will help the supervisor gauge the effectiveness of training. Test annually to see if department performance is improving and how much knowledge has been retained.

Assume you might drop dead tomorrow. Train your crew to run things without you. This "Drop-Dead" philosophy is based upon the concept of instantaneous and immediate transfer of critical data. Would your programs still be in effect and your department still run smoothly if you were gone? Do not be afraid to train on your job. If you are the only one who can perform your job you do not facilitate workflow, you hold it up. Use the Drop Dead theory prior to a big day. Pull your staff aside and tell them the two or three things they MUST do if, for some reason, you do not show up the next day (or you are delayed). It is a simple way to force a manager to provide two or three clear priorities in a short amount of time.

Your priority must be your customer and the people who constantly serve your customer: your employees. Develop an efficient crew, one employee at a time.