19 May Turn New Hires into Top Talent by Elevating Cannabis Employee Training

Cannabis businesses continue to be challenged with employee training. Employees are needed at all times to be productive, and training is often seen as time away from performing a job. Not only that, but there are no universal standards for training employees, so managers are stuck creating their own training plans with little to no guidance. But, despite lack of training standards and no universal training plans in place, it is important to conduct employee training to avoid liability risk and reduce employee turnover. This post discusses the benefits of providing substantial employee training and shares ideas for elevating your current training efforts. Turn your new hires into the best assets for your business.

The Benefits of Employee Training

Employee training benefits both employees and your business. Providing proper training welcomes new employees into the work culture, enabling them to learn more about the industry, the business, their role, and the expectations for the job. They also learn what success looks like, which influences employees to perform well.

When a business provides a significant level of employee training, the business also benefits as employees are better equipped to do their job and understand their role in the company’s success, resulting in reduced employee turnover. In addition, an employee’s productivity often rises, which in turn boosts operations, increases customer satisfaction, and yields additional revenue for the business.

How to Elevate Employee Training

Cannabis is a revolutionary industry and employee training should be no different, which is why businesses must approach it from a different angle. It’s important to continue g corporate, compliance, and skills training, but they don’t necessarily have to be executed in conventional ways.

Here are a few ideas to elevate employee training to develop an effective workforce:

Rethink training styles. Think outside of training videos and a basic manual, and develop a training initiative that incorporates coaching, hands-on training, shadowing experienced employees, and even cross-training at other sites. Employees often perform their jobs better by learning how a job is performed live as opposed to reading about it. For example, companies that own multiple grow sites can offer cross-training in the form of site visits to sister facilities. Site visits offer growers a fresh perspective, where they can learn how to overcome issues like pest infestations, disease pressure, and nutrient problems just by talking to another grower from another site.

Establish a mentor program. Starting a new job can be very overwhelming for a new employee. There are new policies, new products, and new faces to learn. A mentorship can help an employee overcome the learning curve and set up the employee for success. If you have a trusted budtender with years of experience (in their position and in the industry) and a new budtender coming on board, it’s a perfect opportunity for the veteran to mentor the new employee. The mentor can provide training, coaching, and advice as needed.

Make sure employees are always in compliance. There is simply too much to risk (like losing your business) if your employees are caught breaking the law, so it’s critical that they are consistently trained and compliant. Ever changing laws often make videos or compliance policies on hand obsolete. Instead, find a credible online training platform or cannabis course for employees to learn and stay up to date on the law.

Think beyond basic training. Budtenders should not only be trained on operational procedures and the different strains of cannabis, but also in sales techniques and customer service to educate and connect with customers on a personal level. At a cultivation site or grow room, employee training should also go beyond the job. For example, a trimmer needs to know techniques for both wet and dry trimming, but they also need to be routinely trained on health and safety as these sites have a significant number of occupational hazards present.

Develop tools that can help new and existing employees. Are there tools your business can develop to have on hand for a quick reference? For example, in a dispensary, there are a multitude of different cannabis strains to learn during training. A video or classroom course can help get started, but it would be helpful to have something readily available if needed. Consider creating a product catalogue that includes plant descriptions, lab results, desired effects, and price points.

Create a “learning culture” for ongoing education. Training doesn’t stop after onboarding a new hire. Providing continuing education and training opportunities can keep employees current in the industry and strengthen their skillset. Although these require are an investment, the cost of losing talent is much higher. Make learning opportunities available to enhance an employee’s job performance and ask for their input on what they believe will help them develop professionally.

Get the Help You Need to Develop an Employee Training Program

It takes an incredible amount of work to develop and execute an employee training program, especially if you’re already wearing many hats in your cannabis business. Fortunately, a PEO can help. A PEO helps you develop staff-wide training programs that include the proper tools and channels that benefit your employees, your business, and your customers. Because a PEO is skilled in growing a business through staff training and development, it is also able to help with leadership development, continuing education programs, performance evaluations, onboarding new employees, and corporate training. Contact OROleafhr today to discuss employee training for your cannabis business.

Interested in learning more about managing and retaining top talent? Download the free ebook today.