How to Train Employees Ep 25

In this episode of the Gym Secrets podcast, host Alex provides a comprehensive guide for gym owners and service-based businesses on scaling effectively through structured team member onboarding. He introduces a five-component framework for new roles, including an overview, the 'four R's' document (role, responsibility, requirements, results), product expertise, external and internal communication cycles, and a daily checklist or perfect day template. Alex emphasizes the importance of clear expectations and communication, tailored training materials, and leveraging digital training for efficiency. He also encourages listeners to share the podcast, as its growth relies solely on word-of-mouth recommendations.

• Alex introduces the "Gym Secrets" podcast and offers assistance for gym owners to fill their gyms to capacity.
• The offer is directed towards gym owners who are interested in growing their client base and is accessible through a website.
• Alex sets a light-hearted tone by suggesting that any day could be a "Saturday morning at heart."

Good morning, and welcome to the Gym Secrets podcast. My name is Alex, and I will be your host on this beautiful Saturday morning. And whether it is not a Saturday morning for you, well, maybe it can be a Saturday morning at heart.

This quote is Alex's greeting to the audience, setting a friendly and welcoming tone for the podcast.

Anyways, if you're a gym owner and you would like to get more clients and get your gym zero to full capacity, you can go and apply work with us at I don't hate money.

This quote outlines the purpose of the podcast and provides a call to action for gym owners who are looking to increase their clientele.

• Alex discusses the necessary components for scaling a service-based business, applicable to gyms and other businesses.
• He introduces a checklist used for onboarding new team members, which includes five core components plus an overview.

Now, if you're doing a service based business, which if you're a gym, that's what you do. But this kind of goes for any business.

This quote emphasizes that the advice given is suitable for any service-based business, not just gyms.

• Alex breaks down the five main components of a new position into an overview and the "four R's" document.
• The overview provides a general understanding of the employee's role within the larger business structure.
• The "four R's" document consists of Role, Responsibility, Requirements, and Results, designed to establish clear expectations and communication.

So for us, there's five pieces to it, or the way that we see it, there's five pieces to any new position, whether that's customer service for us, sales, administrative stuff, scheduling, whatever it is. Right. Five main pieces, and we usually have six, which is an overview.

This quote introduces the structured onboarding process for new team members, which includes an overview and the detailed "four R's" document.

• The "four R's" document, inspired by Alex Charfin, aims to simplify and clarify the expectations for a role.
• It should be concise, ideally one to one and a half pages long, with each "R" described in a few sentences.
• Bullet points are encouraged for clarity.

One is what we call the four R's document. And this is something I got from Alex Charfin. And it's awesome. And it just simplifies it. So you have role responsibility, which is what you're supposed to be getting done, requirements, what type of person is supposed to be doing it. So requirements for that role, and then results. So when you're doing your responsibilities, what's the result? What's the outcome?

This quote explains the purpose of the "four R's" document and its components, which are meant to provide a clear understanding of the role and expectations.

• Product expertise is the next component and involves a deep understanding of the company and its offerings.
• It is essential for employees to have knowledge about the company as a whole and the specific products or services they will be working with.

Right after that, you have product expertise. So product expertise is a combination of two things. Expertise in terms of understanding what the company is and what we do as a whole.

This quote highlights the importance of product expertise as part of the onboarding process, ensuring that employees are well-informed about the company and its operations.

• Alex's company is highly specialized, catering exclusively to gym owners.
• They provide guidance on acquiring clients and enhancing business profitability.
• Specific industry knowledge is critical for employees, regardless of their background.
• Training is tailored to bridge the gap between previous experience and current industry needs.

We're super niche. We serve gym owners and we show them how to get more clients and make more profitable businesses.

This quote emphasizes the company's specialized market focus and its commitment to helping gym owners succeed.

Right? Now, if I have someone who worked as an office manager at a dentist clinic, which I have one person on my team, that was her background, how do I bridge that gap?

Alex acknowledges the challenge of integrating employees from different professional backgrounds into a specialized industry, highlighting the need for effective training.

• Product expertise is essential for employees to understand the business and its offerings.
• Training modules are created to cover both general industry knowledge and specific job-related skills.
• Alex uses the example of an employee with experience in billing and customer service to illustrate the need for specialized training.

That's product expertise. And then underneath of that, you have her specific product expertise, which is how to handle billing and how to handle customer service teams.

This quote explains the layered approach to training, starting with general product knowledge and drilling down to specific job functions.

• The external communication cycle involves training on customer interaction.
• Customer service representatives have a broad range of topics they must be prepared to discuss.
• Sales representatives require training on the flow and potential variations of sales conversations.

Now, a customer service rep is probably going to have a much longer external communication cycle than, let's say, a sales rep would be, or not necessarily longer, but theirs will be more vast.

Alex contrasts the scope of communication training needed for customer service reps with that of sales reps, emphasizing the depth of knowledge required for customer interactions.

• Internal communication training focuses on how employees report and discuss work-related matters.
• Alex provides an example of how a customer service rep might summarize their day's work and issues encountered.
• The process of reporting helps integrate individual experiences into broader training and knowledge sharing.

So for a customer service rep, it might sound like, I took six calls today. Four of them were about Facebook ad stuff. Two of them were funnel issues. I resolved all of them, right?

This quote illustrates the kind of internal communication expected from employees, which includes reporting on daily activities and any issues that need to be addressed.

• Digital training allows for business scaling without excessive time spent on hiring and training.
• By systematizing training, employees can be brought up to speed efficiently.

And then that is how you build trainings over time so that you can scale your business without spending all of your time hiring and training people, because the training is taken care of digitally.

Alex explains the strategy of using digital training to facilitate business growth, which helps save time and resources while ensuring consistent training quality.

• The podcast's growth is attributed to listeners sharing it with others.
• Word of mouth is identified as the only way the podcast expands its reach.

The only way this grows is through word of mouth.

Alex and Speaker B point out the importance of word of mouth for the podcast's expansion, suggesting that listeners' recommendations are crucial for attracting new audience members.

• The speaker emphasizes a non-commercial approach to podcasting.
• They request listeners to share the podcast as a form of support.
• Sharing is seen as spreading good karma for entrepreneurs.

"So I don't run ads. I don't do sponsorships. I don't sell anything. My only ask is that you continue to pay it forward to whoever showed you or however you found out about."

This quote outlines the speaker's philosophy regarding monetization of their podcast. They rely on word-of-mouth promotion rather than traditional advertising methods.

"This podcast, that you do the exact same thing."

The speaker is expressing their desire for listeners to share the podcast, mirroring how they discovered it.

"So if it was a review, if it was a post, if you do."

The speaker suggests ways listeners might share the podcast, such as through reviews or social media posts.

"That, it would mean the world to me, and you'll throw some good karma out there for another entrepreneur."

The speaker believes that sharing the podcast not only helps them but also contributes positively to the entrepreneurial community.

• Every position in the company has digital training.
• The training includes either a "perfect day template" or a "daily checklist".
• Sales roles have a structured day due to the nature of their tasks.
• Administrative roles have a checklist to manage unpredictable tasks.

"All right, so every single position that we have in our company has digital training."

This quote introduces the concept of digital training for all company positions, indicating a comprehensive training system.

"So the last piece is what we call one or the other, either a perfect day template or a daily checklist."

The speaker describes the final component of the training process, which involves templates or checklists to guide employees' daily activities.

"A more structured role, like a sales position, is actually usually very structured because they do one thing, they take leads and they turn them into sales."

This quote explains why sales positions have a structured day, focusing on converting leads into sales.

"And so for them, it's really just better to have a checklist of like, beginning of day, midday, end of day, which is how we run ours."

The speaker discusses how administrative roles benefit from a checklist to manage tasks throughout the day due to the less predictable nature of their work.

• Overview the employee's role and where they fit within the company.
• Explain product expertise and business operations.
• Internal promotion may not require a repeat of business understanding.
• Specific operational tasks are covered under product expertise.

"Okay? The next thing that you're going to do is explain to them their own product expertise."

This quote highlights the importance of ensuring employees understand the products and services offered by the company.

"So what the actual business does, if it's really someone external, if we're promoting someone, then they don't really need to go through that again because they understand the business."

The speaker notes that internal promotions may not necessitate a repeat of the business overview, assuming the employee already has that knowledge.

"And then the only thing they'll really have to learn is, let's say, a screen flow of how someone does a cancellation, how someone does a refund, how someone does a changing billing date, how someone does."

This quote provides examples of specific operational tasks that an employee may need to learn as part of their product expertise.

• Employees receive a document outlining roles, responsibilities, results, and requirements.
• There are established cycles for external and internal communication.
• Communication examples include daily stats discussions or end-of-day text updates.

"They'll have their four R's document and an explanation of that four R's, which is roles, responsibilities, results, and requirements, not in that order, but that's the way those are, the four R's."

The quote introduces the "four R's" document, a foundational element of the training that clarifies an employee's role and expectations.

"And then they'd have their external communication cycle, how they talk to customers, internal communication cycle, how and when they talk to you, and about what."

The speaker outlines the importance of communication protocols for both customer interactions and internal updates.

"And again, I give you an example of, like, we talk on the phone for five minutes about these stats, daily, weekly, whatever, right? It could be I shoot you a text at the end of the day with my numbers, the communication cycle, be whatever y"

This quote provides practical examples of how communication cycles might be structured within the company, emphasizing the flexibility and adaptation to the role's needs.

• Alex discusses the varying frequencies of communication with different roles within the company.
• Customer service representatives communicate with their manager daily, but Alex only talks to them weekly.
• This is indicative of structured communication protocols depending on the position's requirements.
• Alex emphasizes the importance of tailoring communication cycles to fit the role's needs within the company.

"I only talk to our customer service reps once a week. They speak with their manager daily, but I only talk to our customer service weekly."

The quote outlines the specific communication schedule between Alex and the customer service team, highlighting a hierarchical structure in communication where daily updates are handled by a manager, and weekly summaries are provided to Alex.

• Daily checklists are recommended as a tool for guiding daily conversations with employees.
• Alex suggests using the checklist to review tasks, assess completion levels, and identify any issues faced during the process.
• This approach is particularly beneficial for administrative roles.

"Pull up their daily checklist and then just go over each checklist and ask them how each one of these things got done and to what extent they got finished and if there were any hiccups or any constraints that they felt."

The quote provides a practical method for using daily checklists as a conversation framework, allowing for a structured review of tasks and an opportunity to address challenges employees may have encountered.

• Alex emphasizes the importance of training and accommodating different learning styles.
• He suggests creating training materials that are both visual and auditory, such as screen flow videos.
• The training method involves going through a PDF line by line while recording an explanatory video.
• This technique simulates in-person training and caters to visual and auditory learners.

"The easiest way that we found is that if you pull up the PDF and you go through it line by line and you record yourself as a screen flow with you talking about that piece of paper as the video, training them on that piece of paper, not just simply providing them the paper."

This quote describes a detailed training method designed to simulate in-person learning experiences, ensuring that employees understand the material through both visual and auditory engagement with the content.

• Membership sites on platforms like ClickFunnels are used to host training materials.
• Alex advocates for the use of membership sites to create an interactive and organized training environment.
• He offers assistance in setting up such sites through his company's services.

"The easiest way to do it is we make membership sites on clickfunnels. And if you're not doing that for yours, I think you should."

The quote suggests that using membership sites for training is an efficient and effective method, and Alex endorses ClickFunnels as a suitable platform for this purpose, offering his expertise to those unfamiliar with the process.

• Alex concludes by stating that scaling a service-based business is achieved through effective training.
• He encourages gym owners, whether they are struggling or successful, to visit his website for further assistance in growing their business.

"That is literally how we scale. Like if you scale service, that's how you scale it. You scale by training."

The quote encapsulates the core message that scaling a service-oriented business is fundamentally linked to the quality and effectiveness of training provided to the staff.