Handy tools for training

Nation's Business, April, 1997 by Tim McCollum

Small-business owners are using a variety of affordable, convenient options to help their employees learn to use computer software.

Learn how to use your computer by watching TV.

Sounds like one of those late-night television ads--a little too good to be true. But true it is for Randy Pickering, who uses videos to learn how to make the most of the latest software in his automobile-repair business.

For the past year, Pickering has been using videotapes from Jones Education Co. (1-800-727-5663) in Englewood, Colo., to teach himself how to use Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 95 operating system. Pickering says his company, Pickering's Automotive, Inc., in Lakewood, Colo., has begun relying heavily on computers in its business office. The tapes have shown him how Windows 95 works and have pointed out shortcuts that enable him to work more effectively.

"I'm always learning and finding those open doorways that I can go through," he says. "I can run [a tape] backward and forward and stop if I don't understand something."

Video is one of the solutions that small-business owners have discovered for the problem of obtaining affordable and convenient computer training. Such training becomes increasingly necessary as small firms become more dependent on computers. Ideally, employees bring basic computer skills to the job. But software changes rapidly, adding new features and sometimes requiring users to learn new ways of working. Training helps them become productive faster.

Pickering has encouraged his technicians and office employees to use the videos in his tape library, which he recently expanded to include the Internet and desktop software applications such as Microsoft Publisher. Employees can watch the tapes at their convenience, he notes. "One thing I like about the tapes is I can plug them in and get done with them before I go to work or after hours. It gives me the flexibility to do it on my own time."

Learning To Use The Tool

"People are the most important part of computers," says Lori DeVore, CEO of DeVore Technologies Inc., a computer-training and computer-integration company in Bedford, Ohio. "The computer is just a tool.... It's important to learn how to apply that tool to meet the objectives of the business."

Until recently, large companies with in-house training staffs or large training budgets had a distinct advantage over small businesses. Lacking such resources, small companies have often let training slide. Outside training courses can be expensive, and many business owners are reluctant to let employees miss work to attend them. As a result, employees who need to learn more about software applications frequently have to hunt for answers in arcane manuals or rely on co-workers.

These days, small companies have more options, including video and computer-based training, which can be done inexpensively and quickly, minimizing lost time on the job for employees.

Even traditional training courses are changing with business needs, says DeVore. Companies such as hers have begun using portable computers to take training to customer sites, and they offer classes that are customized to a company's type of business and its employees' individual levels of competence.

DeVore contends that classroom training remains the best approach because it provides more hands-on instruction and greater interactivity between instructor and student than are possible with videos or CD-ROMs. "Computer-based training is a good reinforcement tool, but classroom training is better for learning how to use an application," she says. "Interacting with a real person where you can ask questions is better."

A Preference For Classes

Such hands-on instruction was an important criterion for Michael Beerer, president of PF Micro, a computer-integration firm in Costa Mesa, Calif., when he needed to provide technical training for his 14 employees. Beerer, whose company sells and installs computer systems for retailers, decided to send his technicians to the Santa Ana, Calif., location of New Horizons Computer Learning Centers Inc. to learn about networking technologies such as Microsoft's Windows NT and Novell Inc.'s NetWare.

Beerer says training is necessary to keep PF Micro's staff current on the latest technologies. Until last year, PF Micro had trained its employees itself, but Beerer says that developing course materials cost too much money and took too much time. He says it is easier and more efficient to send employees to New Horizons. "Training in our industry is an ongoing thing," says Beerer. "It makes more sense to send people out to get training."

Beerer's preference for computer training through classes, as opposed to computer-based or video training, is common among U.S. businesses. A study released in February by Lakewood Publications and Training Magazine reports that instructor-led training accounts for 83 percent of the amount budgeted by U.S. companies for information-technology training.

Learning By Computer

Many small-business owners, however, are turning to computer-based programs to teach people software skills.