The digital skills gap can be defined as the mismatch between jobs that require at least a basic understanding of technology in comparison to the number of qualified candidates available to fill these jobs. It’s not surprising that upskilling and reskilling are hot topics for executives, department managers and HR departments in every business sector in the US and across the world.
It makes a lot of sense. It’s less costly to retrain current staff than to onboard new hires. In addition, your employees already understand your business and there’s a lot to be gained by continuing to tap that valuable knowledge. There are other bright spots, too. Offering training opportunities builds employee morale and increases engagement. Many companies find that even employees who initially lack experience with digital tools can learn quickly and help fill the skills gap, especially if they’re working with a user-friendly solution.
That’s where DocuWare can play a role. Our software is easy to use and helps you dispel the mistaken belief that learning to use new technology is intimidating and difficult for inexperienced people. Even employees who haven’t used software in their work lives before can get up to speed without intensive training.
The DocuWare implementation at the Town of Oakfield, New York is a case in point. According to Town Clerk Melissa Haacke, installing and transitioning to DocuWare was straightforward. Even though DocuWare built a custom-made program specific to the needs of the town, the training required was minimal: daily users needed only four hours of training, while occasional users were trained in about two hours.
5 Tips for pain-free training
These best practices were developed based on experience training thousands of users.
- Offer hands-on training. Users learn by doing. Show them how their specific tasks are done. Then give them time to practice at their workstations
- Do not try to teach everything in one session. Training sessions should be shorter rather than longer and cover one topic at a time
- Create a cheat sheet or video broken down by task. These tools reinforce product knowledge
- Record training webinars and document in-person training In addition to providing training for new employees, recordings enable current employees to review course content as needed
- Encourage your staff to join user forums and consult online FAQs
