Taking shortcuts or forgoing training has always jeopardized long-term productivity. However, the changing nature of the professional landscape in the U.S. has especially magnified the need for a more comprehensive approach to user training.

Peter Post, a business etiquette professional, recently wrote in his recurring Job Doc column in The Boston Globe about the new age dynamic affecting workplaces throughout the nation. He said some companies now have employees from as many as four generations working together, and they all have different experiences with technology. As a result, information technology managers must be prepared to approach the end-user-adoption process with the following concepts in mind:

Effective training is a continuous process
Businesses with limited time and resources are often inclined to get their enterprise training over with as soon as possible. However, ensuring employees are fully comfortable with new tools isn't something that happens overnight or after a single session. Instead, companies need instruction that is flexible to their own unique needs on a daily basis. Workers will benefit when they have something they can repeatedly reference, rather than sitting through an initial training session only to ultimately waste additional time and money by making calls to internal help desks.

Employees feel more confident when they are regularly informed about technology changes
Confusion and uncertainty is any workplace's worst enemy. A recent article from Parade said that because of today's multigenerational office dynamic, employees can especially benefit from making efforts to hold each other accountable as a team throughout the entire end-user-adoption process.

The ability to ensure everybody at a business is comfortable with the enterprise software used on a daily basis is important. Not only will it boost overall productivity, but it will ultimately lead to stronger employee morale, as well.