Training new staff whilst WFH - a novel experience.

[cleavers]

Has anyone else had to do this ?

I've just done a shift where I had to train a new member of staff whilst both of us are working from home (they are experienced in the job, but not done the roll before, and it's a busy one). I generally hate doing it in the office, as I just prefer to get stuff done, and I'm not very patient if its going slowly, which it generally does.

Interestingly I found it far better from home, I set a plan of action to follow, and then we were delayed starting by some other training we all had to do, so that set us back 30 minutes for a start, so I feared the worst.

However using skype calls and texts, as well as sharing screens, was a wholly easier experience than sitting/standing behind the trainee as it would have been in the office, and in the end the trainee did all the work, and we completed everything on all deadlines. There were obviously lots of questions as you'd expect, so I've done quite a lot of typing or talking, but actually quite enjoyed it.

Interested to hear other peoples experiences of either being trained or being the trainer ?

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

We will be in August so interesting to have other's experience. Ours will be complete newbies though so will be harder I expect.

 

[cleavers]

We will be in August so interesting to have other's experience. Ours will be complete newbies though so will be harder I expect.

I don't envy that, the person tonight is pretty experienced in other rolls, so I don't need to explain the theory of what we do, just how, and often why how, I guess it also depends on how the person "thinks", we have some colleagues I would think would make it nigh on impossible.

Just one job tonight that they got a bit flustered with, though in reality they'd got it spot on.

I have 2 days "in office" next week training someone else, I think I may adapt the skype way even there, though I know our current IT in the office isn't up to it, we were due an upgrade in mid March which hasn't happened yet, so that might be more messy.

Good luck with yours though.

 

[ell]

My cousin started an internship during the pandemic without ever having been to the office or met any of the people hes working with, I find that mad. (In Canada not over here)

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

I don't envy that, the person tonight is pretty experienced in other rolls, so I don't need to explain the theory of what we do, just how, and often why how, I guess it also depends on how the person "thinks", we have some colleagues I would think would make it nigh on impossible.

Just one job tonight that they got a bit flustered with, though in reality they'd got it spot on.

I have 2 days "in office" next week training someone else, I think I may adapt the skype way even there, though I know our current IT in the office isn't up to it, we were due an upgrade in mid March which hasn't happened yet, so that might be more messy.

Good luck with yours though.

cheers, it will be an experience for all involved!

 

[Kippaxian]

I changed roles after 12 years into another - Had 2 weeks in the office before everybody started WFH - For me personally it was (and still is) horrendous. As much as we have Skype, screen share etc, there is no-one you can turn to when you just want that bit of encouragement that what you are doing is right or to ask that quick question of. I was straight into a "live" and deadline driven role to get reports out but as a newbie you will also need the help of others who are also busy etc and with no direct contact.

I would be loving WFH if I was doing my old role as knew it inside out and would get a sense of achievement at the end of each day. - now, I'm frustrated and anxious as I'm not at the level where I (and no doubt others) think I should be after 5 months.

 

[cleavers]

I changed roles after 12 years into another - Had 2 weeks in the office before everybody started WFH - For me personally it was (and still is) horrendous. As much as we have Skype, screen share etc, there is no-one you can turn to when you just want that bit of encouragement that what you are doing is right or to ask that quick question of. I was straight into a "live" and deadline driven role to get reports out but as a newbie you will also need the help of others who are also busy etc and with no direct contact.

I would be loving WFH if I was doing my old role as knew it inside out and would get a sense of achievement at the end of each day. - now, I'm frustrated and anxious as I'm not at the level where I (and no doubt others) think I should be after 5 months.

That's an interesting take on the other side of the coin, luckily our new joiners have also been in office for some of their training, we do 2 shifts covering 191/2 hours of the day, 1 shift (12 hours) is in office, the other shift WFH, with an overlap between 3 and 7pm, and with a similar deadline driven roll, so they have been/will be doubled for 2 shifts of each, but as soon as they are solo they will be on their own to a degree, as most of our admin staff are WFH, so they do have access to someone on both shifts to ask questions. It will be interesting to see how they get on over the next few weeks, and how effective the training has been.

 

[Manchester la la la la]

I'm the go to guy in my team and for a few other teams too as my area of expertise overlaps some other teams and I'm always answering emails with how to do stuff that cuts into the time I have to do my job haha

We have three new starters on our team currently who are office based with the other 4 of us going in on a rota basis once or twice a week to train up

Once the new starters have a handle on the basics they will go to rota based too. This is only for the basics though (of which there is enough to do) which they will do from home and the more complex stuff will be done in the office.

Works well as it sounds like we won't be back in full time til 2021 at the earliest