| “Take away my factories, and I will build a new and better factory. But take away my people, and grass will grow on the factory floor.” |
| — Andrew Carnegie |
Elaine, manager of a customer service call center at a Fortune 500 company, had problems:
| 1 |
Customers were kept on hold for an average of 20 minutes, almost half of them hanging up before getting through to a representative.
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| 2 |
For 18 months, low unemployment had made it difficult to find people with good skills and attitudes.
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| 3 |
The new-hire training was confusing and dull; as many as three out of four trainees quit before completing it.
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| 4 |
Some trainers openly stated that they would not tolerate any changes to their classroom approach. |
We helped Elaine's curriculum design staff to put together modules using humorous learning games and funny PowerPoint presentations. The stand-up trainers were asked to read over the modules and double-check content. Soon they were reading them for laughs. Then they were using some of the activities. Finally they agreed to pilot the whole program.
Almost immediately, retention of new hires was at 90%! And once on the job, new hire performance was substantially higher than the long-established norm. Everyone was happy: Elaine, her managers, her staff—and most of all, their customers!
Since 1993, HumorRULES® has helped organizations in a range of industries to build strong skills—and great attitudes—in their employees. And we can do the same for you.
We can assist you with curriculum development to punch up your
business training programs, or we can provide our own, fully-designed communication seminars to your people. We can deliver energizing, memorable teambuilding sessions and keynote speeches for your
offsite events. Finally, we can train your trainers to deliver
outstandingly engaging programs that your employees will love—no
matter what the topic.
Our clients have discovered first-hand that when business training is enjoyable, you can’t stop people from engaging with it—and learning well. Like us, they're convinced that humor may offer one of the most effective,make your business training really “stick.”
Research has shown that humor, used appropriately, does more than create good will toward the trainer and the curriculum. It also dramatically enhances creative and cognitive thinking, builds rapport, and reduces stress. That’s why corporate training that’s fun tends to get real, lasting results—and build employee loyalty.
A lot of business trainers instinctively recognize all this. So why doesn’t more corporate training employ humor? The two most common reasons
we hear:
| 1 |
"Nothing will get done. People will horse around instead
of working." |
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| 2 |
"Someone might use it inappropriately, offending customers or other employees—maybe even bringing
on lawsuits!" |
If you have these or other concerns about using humor in business training, you should probably go to FAQ before leaving this site. In the meantime, consider this:
Studies say that for every 1% increase in employee satisfaction, we see a 2% increase in customer satisfaction. Not surprisingly, studies also show that organizations with satisfied employees enjoy substantially higher net income and revenue growth per employee than their competitors. Truly, one of the best investments you can make today is to create a corporate culture as "user-friendly" to your own people as possible.
HumorRULES®
P.O. BOX 54849
Philadelphia PA 19148
Call: 215 HOP TO IT (215.467.8648)
Toll-free: 1.866.700.1011
Fax: 609.926.8194
Email:
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