Get serious about training

It’s not often the Taskmaster has to turn to another entrepreneur for advice, but I couldn’t help but pick up on this tip from Michael Malone, the chief executive of iiNet, who appeared in a great interview on StartupSmart yesterday.

Malone, who runs one of Australia’s biggest internet service providers, was busy hiring tech staff who had little customer service experience when it was suggested he should be hiring hospitality staff who could be trained in tech areas.

“So we shifted completely. We became a registered training organisation, we started hiring people from hospitality or tourism, and we have fairly intensive training at the beginning to bring them up to speed.”

“We did it for operational reasons [but] I think it really did a lot to reinforce that culture that we’re about service; that’s our number one priority so anyone in the business needs to demonstrate a background in service in some way or another.”

Now, not all start-ups need to go to the effort of becoming a registered training body. But it is an example of why it’s worth putting some real time and effort in your training programs.

Instead of making things up in a training situation, you should actually try and document the processes and procedures that are key parts of your culture. As Malone’s example shows, this stuff really, really matters.

Get it done – today!