Cleaning company owners and managers, recognizing the value of their own specialized knowledge, encourage customers and business owners to seek advice from and use the special skills of cleaning professionals. Are these same managers and owners aware that training is a specialized skill and how a highly skilled trainer can provide them with a better educated and more proficient workforce, and workforce management system? Trainers are judged by their ability to help workers remember and use information on the job, whether it be handling cleaning chemicals or deciding which cleaning method to use.

Trainers need to be experts in:

* Creating a non-threatening environment

* Effective communication with employees

* Delivering lessons that appeal to the different senses

* Motivating employees to learn

* Planning and decision-making.

Comfort Zone
Trainers should make workers feel comfortable by creating a non-threatening workplace and showing acceptance of employees and their ideas. They do this by listening, accepting ideas, sharing information, showing interest in others and expressing appreciation. This can result in employees looking forward to training, being more cooperative on the job and being able to work better on their own. Criticism, unfair comparisons, avoidance, outright rejection of ideas and ridicule by a trainer can result in antagonistic and uncooperative employees. Workers may actually be relieved when the trainer leaves.

Put Aside the Past
Traditional adversarial relationships, such as union vs. management, must change or be put aside for cleaning training to be successful. Because effective communication is essential for proper training, trainers must understand some basic communication processes. These include the flow of communication and its components: sender, message, receiver and feedback. Good trainers monitor information during a session, identify problems that may arise and solve them.

Getting Involved
Trainers must present information that appeals to the senses since employees learn in three different ways: hearing, seeing and doing. Generally, people remember 10 percent of what they read, 20 percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they see, half of what they see and hear, 70 percent of what is said, and 90 percent of what is said and done. Employees learn more when they are involved in the process.
By understanding employee motivation, a trainer can present information that helps employees achieve the highest level of learning. Employees need to feel training is valuable or rewarding. "Rewards" can include prestige, pleasure, security, convenience, imitation, new experiences and attention from others. Employees being trained tend to withdraw if they feel their learning efforts are unsuccessful. Trainers can prevent this by doing the simple and known tasks first, before moving on to the difficult or unknown. They do the work in small pieces and at a comfortable speed, and use training materials.

Strategy Session
Putting together an organized training program is essential,
and trainers must ask themselves what elements should be included:

* What exactly do I want the employee to do and know after training?

* Do they have the prior knowledge to learn these skills? Do I need to back up?

* How will I prepare the worker to learn?

* How do I present new information?

Demonstration, Reading, Visual Aids?

* How will I know they've achieved the goal? How will I evaluate their learning?

* What logistical and organizational problems can I expect?

* Will there be discipline problems?

* What are my objectives and how can I improve my technique?

Choosing the correct trainer is difficult. The trainer should be people-oriented, enthusiastic and organized: someone who understands the process and is a management advocate. You may own the best cleaning business in the world, but it means nothing if your employees are improperly trained. Be sure your trainers are of high quality and interested in learning. Trainers can and should influence your employees, so make sure it's a positive influence.

By supporting and properly training the trainer, you are taking a long-term approach to improving your cleaning business. Investing in your trainers today means more productivity and benefits in the future.