Do End Users Need More Training?

In my years of working as an IT professional I have come across many companies who invest heavily in IT Products and Support but for some reason or another the one element that I always find lacking is End User Training. Some companies will go as far as developing a call center or help desk, yet basic end user training by a team of professionals both at the technical and end user level is rarely seen. This kind of break down can causeall sorts of havoc to both the users and to their respective IT Departments. In a recent poll nearly 63% of Enterprise companies do not have an on-site training team in place, and the rate for Small Businesses is even higher then that. Creating a team of technical trainers should rank just as important as your support team, and creating the time and place for your employees to learn in a formal environment can cut support cost and user down time significantly. I have seen many situations where updates to software have occurred with no training provided to the end user resulting in a flood of calls to the support center for the basic of things. By creating a roll out of training along side your upgrade or implementation would not only bring added value to your organization but limit the amount of erroneous issues that arise from lack of training.

How to set-up a training team?

This may be a clear point to some but to others trying to find the starting point can be a little daunting. Does your company require a full time team or can it get by with a part time multi-functioning team? Does your company have the right personnel in place to create such a team? If you are unsure about how to go about developing a training team, hire an outside consultant that can help develop the plan to be put in place so that you can move forward.

Does your company currently have an End User Training Team in place?