Most firms, when they install Worldox (or any other major program) do some initial training. After that, refresher/update/new hire training tends to be a crapshoot.
No matter how you analyze it, the ROI of training is very significant. When I do refresher training, I frequently get repeated “gee, I didn’t know you could do that” responses. If training takes one hour, and a user saves 3-5 minutes a day through increased productivity, then their time savings over a year is 10-15 hours a year. Not to mention lower levels of frustration. Click here to a more detailed consideration I posted a couple of years ago. For an extended analysis of refresher training, click here.
What sort of training is best/available? There is little doubt that the best training comes from an in-house classroom setup. But even before COVID, hardly anybody did that any more. There are two other main options.
First, “in person” Zoom/Webex type setup. In this setup, the trainer and students are live and there is the critical ability for users to ask questions. One critical differentiator here is whether to Worldox configuration used for training is a “canned” demo data set or whether the training uses the firm’s actual data. The latter is much more effective, because users can relate to their actual clients.
The second form of training comes in self-paced modules. Frequently these are little 3-5 snippets each dealing with a particular function, sometimes up to 20 minutes or so. Again, these are canned demo data with no chance for feedback. Worldox has a set of these available under https://www.worldox.com/support/how-to-videos/.
Other major vendors of Worldox training include Dox Advisors’ Worldox Academy (https://www.doxadvisors.com/worldoxtraining). Affinity Consulting’s “Affinity University” also offers a large selection of Worldox courses https://affinityuniversity.com/course/worldox/
Lastly, there are two schools of thought regarding content. Traditionally, training has been a half day or full day and has tried to cover every feature, frequently with a detailed manual/training book. In my view, this tends to overwhelm users and is, I think, counter-productive. On a good day, with a very good instructor, users may recall 70% of the material - and that percentage drops off sharply as the day/session goes on.
I prefer a shorter training session with a followup 3-4 weeks later, after users have gotten used to the program. This allows for reinforcement and lets users ask specific questions based on their workflow. I try also to have a third “admin” session for administrators to cover some advanced and administrative features that not everyone will have rights to use.
I use a “Cheat Sheet” documentation rather than a step-by-step training manual because users can then refer to it later. This, together with a “Frequently Asked Questions” document, are available on my web site at www.heckmanco.com.