n various skills and burn them to a CD.

E-Learning/Computer-Based Training (CBT) – Need to teach back office manager functions or POS skills? Consider purchasing a screen capture software program. You can record the proper keystrokes or functions on the screen, add audio and save them as an .avi file. Cashier, server, phone rep or manager forget how to do something? Simply double - click on the file and a narrated, full-motion movie guides them through the appropriate procedures. T.O.D. (Training on Demand!).

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'Train in the language they dream in.' Jim Knight, trainer extraordinaire for Hard Rock Cafe muttered this quote to me a while back. But digging deeper into the meaning, today's youth learns differently than most of us did when we grew up.

Today’s employees can plug in an $18 joystick into their TV and play one of five video games. Twenty years ago, it took 5 upright video game consoles to hold that technology. Then they come to work for us and we hand them a ‘manual’. Kids today don’t want to know information, they want to know where to find it when they need it.

Shift your focus from memorizing information and making employees past a test. That’s education. Restaurant training MUST focus on skills! Follow up the written test (the knowledge) with a skill validation (the behavior). Everyone ‘knows’ how to do their job, don’t they? The guest’s motto is, “It’s not what you know, it’s what you show!” At the end of each training program, have a short checklist to validate the skills they need to master in addition to the knowledge.

Quit pouring tons of useless facts and information into a new employee’s head during the initial training program. Show them the basics, train more on ‘hospitality’ versus tasks and steps and show them where to find the information when they need it, like recipe flash cards at the station vs. a manual they must memorize or get from the office.

So how can we more effectively deliver the information to the new employees?

Print Materials – Replace long drawn out text passages nobody reads - use a series of digital photos to replace words in a manual.

DVD/Video – If you have training videos, break them into 2-3 minute segments and practice the skills just learned. Employees cannot remember everything they have just seen in a 15 minute video. They have grown up flipping channels and seeing hundreds of messages per hour.

Fifteen minutes of video footage will put them to sleep. Guided Tours – Create audio guides for items such as how to properly answer the phone, greet a guest, suggestive sell.

For $100, you can purchase a digital voice recorder and record instructions on various skills and burn them to a CD.

E-Learning/Computer-Based Training (CBT) – Need to teach back office manager functions or POS skills? Consider purchasing a screen capture software program. You can record the proper keystrokes or functions on the screen, add audio and save them as an .avi file. Cashier, server, phone rep or manager forget how to do something? Simply double - click on the file and a narrated, full-motion movie guides them through the appropriate procedures. T.O.D. (Training on Demand!).

Finally, can’t be

w where to find it when they need it.

Shift your focus from memorizing information and making employees past a test. That’s education. Restaurant training MUST focus on skills! Follow up the written test (the knowledge) with a skill validation (the behavior). Everyone ‘knows’ how to do their job, don’t they? The guest’s motto is, “It’s not what you know, it’s what you show!” At the end of each training program, have a short checklist to validate the skills they need to master in addition to the knowledge.

Quit pouring tons of useless facts and information into a new employee’s head during the initial training program. Show them the basics, train more on ‘hospitality’ versus tasks and steps and show them where to find the information when they need it, like recipe flash cards at the station vs. a manual they must memorize or get from the office.

So how can we more effectively deliver the information to the new employees?

Print Materials – Replace long drawn out text passages nobody reads - use a series of digital photos to replace words in a manual.

DVD/Video – If you have training videos, break them into 2-3 minute segments and practice the skills just learned. Employees cannot remember everything they have just seen in a 15 minute video. They have grown up flipping channels and seeing hundreds of messages per hour.

Fifteen minutes of video footage will put them to sleep. Guided Tours – Create audio guides for items such as how to properly answer the phone, greet a guest, suggestive sell.

For $100, you can purchase a digital voice recorder and record instructions on various skills and burn them to a CD.

E-Learning/Computer-Based Training (CBT) – Need to teach back office manager functions or POS skills? Consider purchasing a screen capture software program. You can record the proper keystrokes or functions on the screen, add audio and save them as an .avi file. Cashier, server, phone rep or manager forget how to do something? Simply double - click on the file and a narrated, full-motion movie guides them through the appropriate procedures. T.O.D. (Training on Demand!).

Finally, can’t b

useless facts and information into a new employee’s head during the initial training program. Show them the basics, train more on ‘hospitality’ versus tasks and steps and show them where to find the information when they need it, like recipe flash cards at the station vs. a manual they must memorize or get from the office.

So how can we more effectively deliver the information to the new employees?

Print Materials – Replace long drawn out text passages nobody reads - use a series of digital photos to replace words in a manual.

DVD/Video – If you have training videos, break them into 2-3 minute segments and practice the skills just learned. Employees cannot remember everything they have just seen in a 15 minute video. They have grown up flipping channels and seeing hundreds of messages per hour.

Fifteen minutes of video footage will put them to sleep. Guided Tours – Create audio guides for items such as how to properly answer the phone, greet a guest, suggestive sell.

For $100, you can purchase a digital voice recorder and record instructions on various skills and burn them to a CD.

E-Learning/Computer-Based Training (CBT) – Need to teach back office manager functions or POS skills? Consider purchasing a screen capture software program. You can record the proper keystrokes or functions on the screen, add audio and save them as an .avi file. Cashier, server, phone rep or manager forget how to do something? Simply double - click on the file and a narrated, full-motion movie guides them through the appropriate procedures. T.O.D. (Training on Demand!).

Finally, can’t b

DVD/Video – If you have training videos, break them into 2-3 minute segments and practice the skills just learned. Employees cannot remember everything they have just seen in a 15 minute video. They have grown up flipping channels and seeing hundreds of messages per hour.

Fifteen minutes of video footage will put them to sleep. Guided Tours – Create audio guides for items such as how to properly answer the phone, greet a guest, suggestive sell.

For $100, you can purchase a digital voice recorder and record instructions on various skills and burn them to a CD.

E-Learning/Computer-Based Training (CBT) – Need to teach back office manager functions or POS skills? Consider purchasing a screen capture software program. You can record the proper keystrokes or functions on the screen, add audio and save them as an .avi file. Cashier, server, phone rep or manager forget how to do something? Simply double - click on the file and a narrated, full-motion movie guides them through the appropriate procedures. T.O.D. (Training on Demand!).

Finally, can’t b

n various skills and burn them to a CD.

E-Learning/Computer-Based Training (CBT) – Need to teach back office manager functions or POS skills? Consider purchasing a screen capture software program. You can record the proper keystrokes or functions on the screen, add audio and save them as an .avi file. Cashier, server, phone rep or manager forget how to do something? Simply double - click on the file and a narrated, full-motion movie guides them through the appropriate procedures. T.O.D. (Training on Demand!).

Finally, can’t be everywhere? Add a guarantee message (‘if we forget to suggest ‘X’, you get it free’). The guest now becomes another manager.“ Train me (in the language I dream in), retain me.”