Rocky Mountain Cannabis Consulting

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Why Your Training Framework Isn't Working

stop expensive employee turnover

Have you recently thought about implementing a training program for your staff but don't know where to start? Maybe you've implemented a training program of some kind but your new hires still seem lost, lacking confidence in the skills they need to succeed leaving you anxious about their job performance and future at your cannabis business?

If you're one of the many cannabis operators looking to implement a successful, repeatable, training strategy to put your mind at ease and build confidence for you and your new hires, stop wasting money and time... Instead focus on your training framework.

When Debbi, RMCC’s Chief Learning Officer and Certified Professional in talent and development, began her career in an entry-level position tracking and tracing legal docs for the state of Maryland and the Federal Government, no official ‘training’ was available to her. Debbi sat down with a woman who was already doing the job and showed Debbi what her daily responsibilities were. She wasn’t getting paid extra to teach Debbi how to do the job, and she still had to get her own work done.

Most people find it difficult to train other people; each new employee is unique. It takes a lot of effort, and talent to lead others to proficiency in a new job quickly. New Hires are expected to know how to do their jobs in just a few weeks of joining a new company. That’s a lot of pressure on everyone!

During this time, Debbi learned how to do her job by watching others, asking questions, and having people show her what they did.

Unfortunately, over time Debbi also learned that the way she was taught was not compliant. It wasn’t her manager’s fault. It was the same way they had been taught. 

Without a training framework, Debbi had no idea what exactly she was supposed to be doing. Sound familiar? 

RMCC sees cannabis businesses and cannabis technology solutions making the same mistake. Many licensed cannabis companies and technology solutions are trying to support a small team without a training framework.

what is a training strategy for and why is it important?

Here are the rewards you will reap by putting in the time and effort to build a robust training strategy:

  • Less stress in hiring new staff knowing exactly what their training program looks like and how long it should take to complete

  • Less labor cost in having other staff members perform training sessions that are not easily repeatable, standardized, or verified to be compliant

  • Assurance that your new staff members are learning compliant workflows

  • Companies that offer comprehensive training programs experienced a 24% higher profit margin than those that spent less on training according to the Association for Talent and Development.

if your operational workflows are non-compliant, they can be expensive. if you don’t have a training framework, how are you ensuring your sops of compliant workflows are being followed, validated, and updated when last-minute changes occur?

After 15+ years as a corporate trainer for the highly regulated financial industry, Debbi knows the pressure of what it takes to stay compliant.

Sitting next to someone all day while they teach a new hire how to do their job is expensive. Lack of training leads to employees feeling unappreciated in their job and, in a general sense, feeling their job doesn’t really matter. At this point, employees either leave or get fired for poor performance. While it may seem simple just to replace one worker with another, consider this: hiring someone can cost up to 30% of the job’s salary which for an employee making $40,000 a year could equal around $12,000 to hire someone new.

It takes a lot of time, there is no guarantee the right process is being taught, and people get tired of saying the same things over and over.

It takes someone on average 11 - 15 times of completing a workflow to feel confident in completing the flow themselves. Even if a new employee reads all your SOPs they still won’t teach them how to do their day-to-day job.

We are more efficient if we put a framework around what an operation should learn with training. By providing the task framework with need-to-know steps and reminders you’ll see your bottom line improve due to a reduction in errors. Peregrine Performance Group found that employee proficiency went up by 50 percent when they cut a one-week training course to a day and added an eight-page job aid. That means they did more than just shadow employees, they had a framework of training with tools.

Improve your bottom line and use your SOPs as a basis to develop a training framework. Make guides, demo videos, lectures, and job aids!  Give job aids to your staff to give them the information they need, when they need it.

Video demonstrations, lectures, assessments, and the ability to review training is an important part of any training framework. If you’re on a limited budget be sure to leverage free resources like YouTube. Metrc and other cannabis software provide guidance in using their systems so be sure to ask your providers.

Here are a few of our technology partners you should check out: 

  1. Trym Farm Management Software

  2. Flowhub

  3. Distru

  4. touCanna

RMCC helps clients reduce common errors with training, accelerating their compliance operations skills in weeks, not years.

If you don’t have the team in place to develop your own training framework, our online training platform provides learning pathways for cultivators, processors, manufacturers, distributors, and retail operators. RMCC goes beyond training with “on the job how-to” tools such as SOPs, checklists, templates, job aids, mock audits, and practice sessions. Students across 9 states are increasing their confidence through RMCC's 1:1 coaching, 40+ hours of self-led training, and a supportive expert community.

The RMCC team has developed courses that outline the trials and tribulations of navigating the complex world of cannabis compliance operations in order to help others learn without having to make the same mistakes.

Debbi put a training framework around RMCC’s operational expertise and, in 2021, RMCC will certify up to 100 individuals in the Compliance Operations Certification Program.  

Students right now are learning how to build, scale, train, and audit compliance operations throughout the supply chain in 9 states. 

Don’t wait, join them today by applying here and use RMCC’s online training framework to train yourself and your team!