5 Benefits of Training Your New Painters Right From Your Website

Are you prepared?

As consumers, we quickly adapted to this “new normal” of online everything…but is your company ready for… online training?

There are a variety of benefits for the us as business owners that may not be as swiftly recognized or put to use, and we would love to help you change that.

However, there are a variety of benefits for the companies themselves that may not be as swiftly recognized or put to use, and we would love to help you change that.

Today, let’s talk about online training for employees – both new hires and old hands alike.

Having your training program available on your company’s website offers several important benefits for both your company and its employees.

Let’s break down some of these perks with five benefits of training your new painters right from your website.

1. Everyone has access.

Prior to the opportunity for online training, much time was spent training employees on their position in your company and the policies specific to your business before they could begin working in the field.

New hires would often spend hours in front of a screen, on company property, watching training modules before starting their on-hands training – a process that was tiring for both employer and trainee.

Now, by adding these training videos and documents directly to your website as we see applied in the photo above from Jeff Walters Painting, Inc., new employees have all the information they need right at their fingertips.

Accessibility is also a huge benefit when considering the challenges of navigating social distancing and employees possibly working from home during a quarantine – training time that might have been lost before is now simply shifted in location.

This benefit doesn’t stop once an employee is trained and in the field, either, because everyone runs into situations where they have questions and having the reference materials right on hand will drastically cut down the time it takes to get a question answered and the job back up and running.

Bottom line here – you are saving valuable time both initially and long-term.

2. The same across the board.

For painting contractors where many new employees are learning exclusively on site, this offers you the chance for these new hires to be more consistent in their training.

New workers begin with the company procedures fresh in their mind and tend to find their own way of doing things over time that, while not messing with results, might vary from their original training – meaning anyone they train starts by doing things as they do.

With the procedures right on the website, this gives all new hires the same training and ensures a more consistent workforce.

Additionally, this becomes more beneficial as your company grows and training remains consistent with less travel necessary for trainers.

While you may still desire to send someone to check on the initial work of new locations, there is no longer a need for a weeks-long stay that costs the company mileage, lodging and per-diem rates.

3. Individualized pacing.

Everyone learns at different speeds.

This has been true of people through history and, concerning training, has sometimes been the downfall of a new hire.

Either a person picks up on the information quickly and is ready to hit the ground running sooner than they are allowed or they may need the entire training time to prep themselves for the work ahead.

If you are dealing with the quick learner, you risk losing time that this person could already be making the company money in their hired position while they are stuck in front of a screen.

With the slower learner, you risk their not being ready for field work and thus making more mistakes in the beginning or needing more supervision at first.

Both of these scenarios can be avoided with online training access as the quick learner can test out of their module and start working sooner while the lack of time constraints eases the anxiety of the other new hire and also places the answers to their questions constantly in their hands.

Especially in the latter situation, having more independence in the beginning sets up this new hire for a better chance of success!

4. Personalized education.

In addition to being able to learn at one’s own speed, online training offers the learner the ability to customize their experience.

Yes, the training program is the same for everyone on the website, but the individual can choose how they interact with the information such as note-taking, simply listening, or working with a hands-on model based on their own preferences.

This has been shown to improve retention of information overall and thus sets up new hires for success in ways that traditional, in-person training might not have.

The great thing about this method is that, unlike a teacher in a classroom who is struggling to meet all the needs of a group, there is no need to try to meet your workers halfway as they can choose their own methods.

This reduces stress on both the trainer and employee.

5. It’s inexpensive.

Finally, like we mentioned in regard to travel for trainers, having your materials available on your website is simply more cost effective.

In-person training costs twice as much in salary hours due to the need for a trainer on the clock with the new hire and might take profit from another area in which you are losing a competent painter for the duration of the instruction.

Some companies have employees that are hired specifically to train, balancing out the loss of that person in the field; however, that isn’t often the case.

Beyond the freeing-up of man hours is the ability to create your own training materials within the company, which saves money on having to hire out a media team to create these for you and circles back around to the consistency in results.

When experienced painters are the ones filming tutorials, you ensure that your company’s best procedures are the only ones being taught and you can see a great example of apprentice training videos on Jeff Walters Painting, Inc. here.

Less money spent on training is more money available for expansion, brand awareness, customer retention,  or overtime hours in the field for quicker customer turnaround –and happy customers will always bring more business.

How about one more bonus benefit: Customizable

Each Painter Training Site is easily modified with added content from yourself, your crew, or office staff. How about we take your Employee Handbook, Direct Deposit Forms, etc and add them right to the site? Yes, please!

Of course, you could spend hours and hours creating this training program on your own, but if you want the benefits without the hassle, just have us at DYB Virtual set this up for you. You’ll be so glad you did! (For more information on this service, click here.)