The Importance of Training
Perhaps the most important part of training is the interaction between new employees and their managers. Often, managers get promoted into those positions simply because they have were good at doing the job they are now managing, not because they are actually a good manager. Thus, it is just as, if not more, important to train managers to be good managers as it is to train employees how to do their jobs well. As we saw in the article about Walmart Academy, “the most useful lesson Mr. Guile learned at the academy was how to motivate his workers” (Corkery). Furthermore, in the article about effective onboarding, we saw how important it is to “encourage managers to check in with new employees and make time to offer support (Ellis).
Being a manager is something I always felt I would be good at and it was I have always aspired to. I feel like this class has been the most helpful class I have ever taken for teaching how to actually be a good manager. It has been so helpful to read so many articles about real managers and they successes and failures so we can learn from their mistakes. Additionally, the decision making practice we have been getting through the simulation and case studies has been really helpful experience and I can see myself using in the near future at my current job.
An example on an on-the-job training experience I had that was not great was came at one of the first jobs outside of my family business I ever had. I was 18, had just moved to Spain, and barely spoke Spanish but I job a job as a dishwasher in a nice restaurant. I though I could do the job well enough because I had some experience working in a kitchen and it is not a super complicated task. However, the woman who was in charge of training me was super particular about how things needed to be done. She was not very good at showing me how to do things in a way I could understood and often got very frustrated at me and just did everything herself which felt bad for me and was not helpful for my learning.
