Having to help train other people at work

Post Reply New Topic

I have been working in a temp-to-perm job for nearly 4 months now. I work in an audit team at an international insurance company, and our role is to audit the business processes, including the IT processes. I like this job as it involves working on the computer virtually all the time, and does not involve too much social interaction, apart from with the 10 other people in my team, all of whom are friendly to me (although I have not told them about my AS and I have no intention to do so, as they all seem fairly tolerant of the fact I am quiet, because I always try my best at my work).

Recently a new girl joined our team, and this morning I was asked to train her on how to carry out a particular daily audit I have been working on for the last 2 months or so. Basically it involves checking that customer data has been correctly mapped from our old system to the new one. I had been told in advance that I would have to help train this colleague, so it didn't come as a surprise to me, and I did have a chance to prepare some notes for her. I was quite nervous though, as I had never been in the situation of teaching a fellow colleague before.
Overall I think I did quite well though, especially as this is the first time, and I spent about half an hour demonstrating step-by-step how to carry out the process, and answering any questions.
At one point the woman did ask me to slow down a bit, and to start right from the beginning (which I did), so that she could take notes.

When I first started working at this company, and the other team members had to train me, they would sometimes print out "crib-sheets" explaining the basics of the process, so I adopted the same method, and devised a crib-sheet for the woman to use, which also acted as a prompt for me so that I wouldn't forget what to say.

I think I have learnt a lot from doing this - as five years ago I would never have been able to guide someone like this, because I would have been too shy. In future I think I would do better if I was more prepared, so that the training session would flow more smoothly, as there were one or two minor things which I forgot to mention in the sequence that I should have mentioned them. Overall though, the woman seemed to understand what I was saying, and later in the day she was successfully carrying out the audit in the way that I had taught her.

Does anyone have any tips on how I could improve my training procedure? I know that it is inevitable I will probably be asked to help train someone again in the future. As I have AS it can be quite difficult for me to know how the other person is feeling - for example if I am going too fast or too slow, or if I am confusing them, unless they explicitly tell me.

Wow that was a long post! If anyone has had the patience to read all this, I'd welcome your advice! Thanks!

Wow! It does sound like you did a great job. I don't have anything to add. I especially liked the crib sheets or cheat sheets. Your right--not only will she find them helpful in the future, they could be used so you didn't forget anything.

Great job!

I've got a trainee at work, too - I really like doing it because I can tell them all the things that I had to learn on my own and also just because I like teaching . . .

I think that most people learn best when they actually get to do the thing they are learning.

The first time you show someone, you can do it, and explain each step. Then have the trainee do it, and explain each step (although you probably don't need to use the same detail this time). Let the trainee keep doing it, prompting them if they get stuck, or are about to do something wrong, until they can do it themselves.

This is how I show new people how to do things, and it seems to work.

I also say, "if you need any help, just ask, because it's important that you know how to do things right." I once had this new woman who asked me about every tiny little simple thing, and then said she was going to commit suicide if I didn't give her some positive feedback - HOW CAN I WHEN YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING YOURSELF?????. (Sorry, got a bit carried away there.) That got extremely irritating, but most of the time this works well.

My usual training routine (especially in retail) has been having them watch me do things whilst explaining what I'm doing, and I do it a little slower than usual... I have them read manuals and safety booklets, and when there's something easy to do that they have been shown how to do, I ask them to do it, and help them if they need it. Nothing to it, really.
---
Chelle

I don't like training new people, especially if I don't know about it ahead of time. All the usual stuff going on combined with the fact that someone's attention is focused on me all the time, and trying not to forget anything important in the training... all that usually causes overload or something similar and I end up coming across as a real weird freak. Not good for first impressions but I don't worry about it too much anymore. I know I'll have plenty of opportunity to act a little more normal on future shifts with the person. Usually new people end up working with me on the weekends more than anything, so in a way it makes the most sense for me to do the training - it just really tends to bring out the aspie in me.