Importance of Training and Troubleshooting

One thing I have realized is that training is very important. This is where you show your new employee how to do their job. They should learn every possible obstacle they might run into and how they can handle it. Even if they haven't been trained for a certain situation, once they complete training they should learn how to improvise by then. What I have learned about the job I just finished is that there is not enough training for employees. When I started Media Support Services for the library, I learned how to check a room which is basically making sure podiums work in the classrooms. What they do not teach you is what kind of problems you might run into if a classroom is not functioning. A few of the employees and I already knew electronics quite well, but others were pretty much clueless. I learned how to fix most problems by asking others above me. If I went to a classroom and didn't know how to fix it I'd either tell the teacher it'd be fixed later or tell our technician to come there depending on how serious it was. I basically taught myself and was ready for almost any problem when I came to a classroom.

Now when a teacher has a problem with the equipment in the room they call us. What were suppose to do is try to talk to them and try to trouble shoot them through the problem, but this almost never happens. Most of the workers that answer the phone do not know how to fix anything so they ask the people who have worked there longer. This is a problem that can be solved by teaching troubleshooting in training. Many of the problems we receive can be fixed with to pushes of a button. When you have workers who don't know that it requires others to go out and fix problems that aren't as important as something else that might be going on. If an employee knows all the possible problems that can go wrong it saves time and manpower.