Expert Tip: How to make ERP training more effective

Expert Tip

Training employees for a new ERP Software is an important factor for a successful ERP implementation. Lots of organizations purchase the new ERP application, personalize it according to their requirements, & upgrade their computers for the use of the new application. The new ERP application will be of no great use to the company if the management fails to provide adequate training to their employees on the new system.

We have already discussed the importance of effective training for employees, here, we will discuss, and how the organization can provide innovative and useful training to the employees making training more of a fun and looked forward to activity rather than being monotonous and uncomprehending, hence, a nightmare for the employees. The Management sure has a major role to play in the training of the employees.

How can management support ERP Training:

1. Supporting the employees – management has to be very supportive to the employees – ensuring their job security, being open to their feedback and designing their training methodology.

2. Designing training methodology – designing training for employees is crucial since not all employees have the same grasping or understanding power. The training should not be too monotonous or too technical that the employee will not understand. The management is the one who knows its employees better. Hence, they can help design a very interactive training session.

3. Building a training pool – usually training is given by the ERP vendor to the employees. The management can have a training pool built instead of giving all the employees training at one go. In the training pool, the management can select few of its employees from different departments and make them undergo the training process. Once done, these newly trained people can be additional arms of the management to train their respective departments and company. Here, there is no complete dependence on the ERP vendor and the management can have an ongoing training process planned.

Innovative methods to train your employees on ERP software:

1. Training Based on individual Role:

In an organization every employee has an individual role. In this training process the staff is divided into various groups based on their job roles. Each group is delivered “different” training, depending on the tasks they perform or what is pertinent to their department. A Group is created based on employees department such as Purchase, sales, transfer, finance. Each group is trained on the ideas and modules relevant to their work. This process could facilitate the delivery of training in a fast and effective manner, but it may be difficult and time consuming to bring people working at different locations together at a place. The company can take help of Webex or Skype to reach out to departments or branches in other locations.

2. Training for Live Scenarios:

According to surveys, lots of bugs are found when actual work has started on the ERP software because of the different scenarios being fed in along with testing and live entries. To help employees cope with the same so that they understand what to do in such situations, simulation of live environment is created for training purpose. Exposing your team to real-world cases in ERP program integration will be much more helpful than generic training modules. Though here, the trainer needs to be more vigilant and avoid any stress generating situation by briefing the employees in depth beforehand.

3. Self-learning Method:

In this method, employees navigate through the new ERP program & explore it using manuals provided with the ERP application. This training method can be time saving & cost effective if the material provided by the seller explains the program in-depth. But the challenges involved in it can make the learning experience ineffective when the learners have little experience in using the ERP program & cannot follow the manual effectively. Measuring how well a worker actually works on the program becomes a challenging task for the employer. This can also be a tedious and a long process different employees have different grasping and understanding power.
4. Use Multiple Training Methods:

As people vary in their learning styles, there are lots of ways of learning that works differently for each employee / department. Whether it is simulations, traditional classroom or webinars training, provide a variety of tools to meet the massive selection of learning styles of your team.

To know more about seamless ERP Implementation and Training methods, write to Sage Software Solutions Pvt Ltd at sales@sagesoftware.co.in.