{"id":16108,"date":"2020-09-22T09:31:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T09:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/?p=16108"},"modified":"2021-02-09T11:05:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T11:05:00","slug":"what-is-a-job-aid-how-do-they-create-effective-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/blog\/what-is-a-job-aid-how-do-they-create-effective-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a job aid? How do they create effective employees?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>If your people are going to be effective in their job, they need access to the right content and resources in their moments of need. But overwhelming them with too much detail will have the opposite effect. What they\u2019re crying out for is the key information in a format that\u2019s easily understood, and it\u2019s this idea that informs <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/job-aid\/\">the role and format of job aids<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2><strong>So, what exactly does a job aid look like?<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>It might not be a term that you\u2019re familiar with, but you\u2019re probably using and encountering job aids every day. If you\u2019ve ever used a cue card to remember something complex for a presentation, you\u2019ve created one. If your office has the Wi-Fi details plastered around to stop everybody heading over to the router or asking a colleague, you\u2019ll already have an idea of how helpful they can be.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>These are informal job aids, they make sure you\u2019re connected and confident, but they don\u2019t necessarily make you better at your role. In a more formal and productive sense, job aids provide important information and instructions in an easy-to-follow format, allowing people to <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\">work smarter, faster and more independently<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>They\u2019re step-by-step guides, checklists and resources that provide the right amount of detail to help people complete a task, by clearly detailing how it can be done. As we\u2019ll now discuss, this empowers employees to find the resources when they need them and complete work in a more accurate and timely fashion.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2><strong>How job aids can help employees perform better\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Easy-to-follow reminders on processes within your company.<\/li>\r\n<li>Clearly communicate when information and processes have changed.<\/li>\r\n<li>Summarise useful resources and data into bitesize amounts.<\/li>\r\n<li>Provide key information that encourages better conversations with prospects and customers.<\/li>\r\n<li>Ensures consistency, with people working from the same resources.<\/li>\r\n<li>Reduces question\/answer exchanges between employees and management.<\/li>\r\n<li>Reinforces what has been learnt in courses and training sessions.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Let\u2019s wrap up and explain what this all means. If there are necessary tasks when adding new customers to your system or the process changes, an effective job aid would outline all the steps for your staff with brief guidance. This ensures that they have the resources to onboard those customers accurately.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>If <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/customer-service\/\">customer-facing employees<\/a> need to talk prospects through a list of key features, an aid that describes these and their key benefits will enable them to have better conversations. The same guide would also mean those employees are literally working from the same page, meaning there\u2019s consistency in how you\u2019re talking to customers. And its availability means there is less back and forth with them as they search for the resources they need.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Lastly, they\u2019re an excellent tool to reinforce what employees have learnt during courses and training sessions. When done well, job aids can summarise the key takeaways concisely and this makes for more actionable learning for your staff.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2><strong>How learning platforms can help deliver job aids to your people<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>It might sound a little simple to say, but job aids are only useful if people can find them easily. They can only help in the moments of need if they can be found in the moments of need, and that\u2019s why learning platforms are so helpful in delivering job aids.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>If you\u2019re unfamiliar with learning experience platforms (LXPs), the important idea is that they create a library of internal and external resources that can be found by your employees, either through you assigning them in courses or people searching for them. Essentially, you\u2019re creating a searchable database of resources, in various formats, that\u2019s available on-demand. This streamlines and amplifies those concepts of consistent job aids, resources that can be found when they\u2019re needed, and employee independence in finding that information.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>At HowNow, we integrate with the apps you use every day, so that job aids and other useful resources can genuinely be found in the workflow.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2><strong>Examples of good, informative job aids<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"439\" class=\"wp-image-16109\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Good-job-aid-example-HowNow-min.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/media.nngroup.com\/media\/editor\/2018\/01\/12\/5-steps-service-blueprint-27.png\" alt=\"\" \/>\r\n<figcaption><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nngroup.com\/articles\/5-steps-service-blueprinting\/\">Source: Nielsen Norman Group<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img src=\"https:\/\/d3ki9tyy5l5ruj.cloudfront.net\/obj\/b42e441d92e2ed1a443291df59aa10d6d758659e\/New-hire-checklist-for-managers-m.png\" alt=\"\" \/>\r\n<figcaption><em><a href=\"Source: Asana\">Source: Asana<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your people are going to be effective in their job, they need access to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":17041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3118],"tags":[1833],"yst_prominent_words":[1922,1928,1923,1921,316,279,1929,1180,160,80,1925,1920,1301,1924,9,1003,349,535,1927,1926],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16108"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18981,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16108\/revisions\/18981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16108"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}