IT: End-user Training

[Magic Johnson]

Do you/someone within your dept give end users training on new IT projects? Even new software or whatever.

I'm a strong believer in this, but don't have the bloody courage to say to my boss 'I'll do it!' as I'm a crap public speaker and get really nervous speaking in front of small groups, never mind large ones. I'd love to do it, it'd be something else to add on to my CV as well and could stand me in good stead for a pay rise.

I've got presentations made up on Enterprise Vault and our entire e-mailing system, but I'm nervous it could be absolutely boring as hell. I know I'm going to have to train our blue-collar staff on the PDA's we're rolling out, so it has to happen sometime, and I'm crapping meself about it.

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

Yea go for it, it may seem daunting at the moment but after a few goes you'll soon have a new found confidence in public speaking. I love being a certified mac professional but these days only get to pass my knowledge on when i get asked questions by friends family etc and i go from being the quiet one to a veritable font of knowledge

 

[David]

1st one is tough, after that you're bored shitless from having done it so many times. man up

 

[iain187]

we do nearly none.

our healthcare people had a member of staff who volunteered to train everyone up when they got an upgrade

when our finance system went to sap it was in conjunction with our parent company so the parent company did the training

and when our main business software got an upgrade it was basically just a facelift so none required.



people dont even ring us with questions on how to do things in word because they know we are never at our desk.

 

[@Spoonie]

Do it. You'll be shitting yourselve leading up to it but once complete it will give you huge sense of achievement. I've delivered a few 1 week long training sessions and loads of 1 hour presentations over live meeting (they suck because they are recorded and if you start losing it you know in the back of your mind it can't be corrected).

 

[DMS]

I don't do it now, but I used to have to in my first job.
I was nervous about doing it at first, but I found that as long as you prepare well it's a piece of piss once you get going.
Make sure tea and biscuits are available and don't take the whole thing TOO seriously, otherwise people will get bored.
As Spoonie says, once you've done it you'll feel a huge sense of achievement. This is especially true if you do what I did - send a link around to a survey I'd created on our SharePoint site, then sit back and admire all the awesome feedback. Oh, and make sure your manager, his manager and his manager's manager see it for extra brownie points

 

[Cookie]

Start out by training people you're friends with at work, that's what I did

 

[alanc1000]

You dont need to spend too much time making it mega exciting, its a bit of IT and all they give a toss about is does it work, will it save them time, and how do they use it. If you get all enthusiastic about it and waffle on about technical detail you'll loose them.

The session needs to be short and punchy with no repetitions and a live exercise where the audience have a go, short Q&A and thats pretty much it.

Reality that most of us IT people forget is that a majority of end users dont give a stuff about IT, they find it boring.

 

[m4rkie23]

Go for it man, whats the worst that could happen? You get bored.
Fancy being bored at work. ppft..