One of the most common pitfalls of training is making an assumption that because something was shown once or twice to the learner (or they were shown some written instructions) he or she now knows how to do it. (If you doubt the prevalence if this problem, just think of how many students are promoted to a new grade each year without ever mastering the skills of the previous grade.) Without going into dry details of learning theory, it is still worth pointing out that everyone learns differently (some learn by seeing, some learn by hearing, some learn by doing; the most effective learning is a combination of all three). Ensuring that your employee knows how to do the job as you like it done is your responsibility as the manager. Chastising a poorly performing employee who doesn't know how to perform the job you are asking her to perform will only frustrate both of you.
Admitting that we don't know how to do something - especially something that others assume we already know how to do - is a blow to the ego; and make no mistake, people work very hard to protect their egos.
When I was working in the hospital, I had a unit manager come to me about a young nurse who worked for her. She described the employee as pleasant, customer-oriented, and dedicated to her job (she almost never missed a day at work), but there was one recurring problem: this nurse continually pushed her work with the more seriously ill patients onto other nurses in the unit and it was becoming a serious bone of contention among the other unit employees. The assumption was that the nurse was lazy and did not like working the "hard" cases. The unit manager sensed she would soon have a mutiny on her hands if something didn't change, but she was frustrated because she felt she had tried everything she could to remedy the situation and she was still not seeing improvement. The manager believed that she was out of options and was going to have to let the employee go.
I suggested that we try one last thing: have a Nurse Educator (NE) from the training department observe on the unit for a day or two under the auspices of a department-wide "skills check". At the end of the review, the NE's report was straightforward. The nurse in question was only avoiding treating patients that required a certain skill set; those involving specific cardiac care procedures. When the unit manager called the employee to her office and gently pointed out that the skills review had uncovered the nurse's deficiency in that one area, the young nurse admitted that she was not sure how to perform certain procedures (that she should have learned while in nursing school), and was afraid to admit it for fear of losing a job she really needed. Rather than put the patient at risk, she was asking the other nurses to "help" (a.k.a. - to do her work).
As a result of the what was learned from the NE's report and the subsequent discussion with the employee, the manager sent the nurse to the training department for an intensive period of training and review of the skills in question. The nurse emerged a week later; consequently more confident and productive. She no longer pushed her more critical cases onto others and the morale on the unit increased. By taking the time to identify the obstacles to this employee's success, the department became more efficient and was also saved the expense of rehiring and retraining a new employee to replace the one that had been under-performing.
So, are you assuming that because someone should know how to do something that they do know how to do it? If your employee isn't "singing along" with you and the rest of the staff, could it be because she doesn't know the words?
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