Are you providing your employees with ERP training or ERP education? Maybe you’ve never though of them as two different things, but it is important now to recognize the difference. When you hear the word “training” what do you think of? Long meetings? Boring videos? Teaching your dog how to shake? The word “education” on the other hand makes one think of learning, conept retention, and real-life application.
The difference between the two is simple: Attitude and end goals.
The goal of training is usually to get through something….if you are training for a marathon you train up until the day of the race and then you stop either for a long break from running or you stop forever, right? The goal of education though is to actually learn something that you can use in the future and build upon with additional education and learning experiences. The same holds true in the ERP world. If your end goal is to empower your employees with the knowledge they need to excel at their jobs, it’s time to make some attitude adjustments. Think of ERP training as an education, not just a step in the ERP implementation process.
The most effective ERP training educates users not just on “what does this button do?” but goes beyond that to help them understand the software on a much deeper level; “what is the purpose of this button and why does it matter?”
Proper ERP training should give users a deep understanding of the following:
- How the software supports the business objectives
- How information flows through the new system
- How transactions are inter-related with business processes
- How a task is affected by actions upstream in the system
- How an action affects tasks downstream in the system
- How processes are affected because of the software
ERP training (or education) should never end after ERP implementation is complete. Be sure to provide all staff, both new and tenured, with ERP training and education resources such as refresher courses, advanced courses, and an internal expert who they can go to with questions on the software.
There is no one-size-fits-all and you have to do some research to find the best ERP solution for you. Read more here.