Later on this year, we'll be rolling out Office 2007 to all our employees. As we're currently on a very different version of Office, it'll mean a lot of training for our staff to ensure they can deal with the new features.
Has anyone else had experience of this? What have you done to get everyone trained up quickly and effectively.
Any insights that can be shared?
Jo House
6 Responses
Some thoughts …
Hi Jo, you may want to consider offering training at basic, intermediate and advanced levels. The basics for those who want to get up and running, intermediate/advanced for those who need deeper knowledge, e.g. secretarial/admin staff on WP, finance staff on spreadsheets. Arrange lots of basic courses interspersed with intermediate. Keep advanced for three to four months afterwards.
You may have already done this but try to identify groups of employees and therefore, the levels of knowledge required. Check for existing tasks which will require updating, will any document conversation be required? Ask users for their thoughts as you’ll get better buy in from them. Can you attend any departmental team meetings to ask for views? Do you have time to send out a questionnaire in advance to gauge thoughts/wishes. Finally, have a look at numbers of users needing training and divide by the number allowed in your training room to establish how many sessions will be needed and then add a few more for good measure. Good luck with this, you’ve certainly got a busy time ahead but it’s not insurmountable.
Office Roll Out
Hello
Just a little snippet from me!
I would also recommend you arrange for some ‘floorwalkers’ to be available (and wandering about if that is possible) on the day that the new operating system is rolled out. Ideally these should be trainers (as they will have the knowledge and the people-friendly approach!) who can help with on the spot questions as they arise.
I have found that sometimes, with this type of training you can find yourself having to train groups up a week or two before they are actually going to get their hands on the new system and practice what they have learnt. They can then feel anxious that they are going to forget things and the presence/promise of a floorwalker can go a long way to put their mind at rest.
Plus I also think it shows commitment from the training/project team which sends lots of good messages out!
Hope that helps.
Lucy
Have you seen it yet?
you don’t mention whether you are familiar with Office 2007 yourself. I have been using it for a year and am still coming to terms with where things are in the ribbon.
Floorwalkers are definitely the way to go (especially for a large organisation).
There is no “quick” for Office 2007 because it’s so different – it’s a whole new learning curve (Outlook excepted)
Good luck
Recommended Resource – Microsoft’s Office 2007 Command Reference
Our company is currently in the process of rolling out Windows Vista and Office 2007.
I have found the most useful resources to help with the transition are Microsoft’s Command Reference Guides. These are interactive tools which present you with an Office 2003 interface and when you select a command, demonstrate where to find the equivalent commad in Office 2007. I have placed these on our intranet for everyone to use. You can download them from Microsoft e.g. Word is at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx
Although the new interface initially looks daunting, I have found that once you explain the logic of how it works, with the support of the guides the transition has been relatively painless.
Please feel free to contact me if you would like to know more about our methods and experiences with the rollout.
Ideas
This is not the first time this question has been asked and I doubt that it will be the last because, as has been mentioned below, Office 2007 is quite different from its forebears.
I have had lots of experience of projects like this for large and small numbers and wrote a short article for TrainingZone that might help:-
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=178392&d=680&h=608&f=626&dateformat=%25e-%25h-%25y
The main thing from your point of view is that you are asking the question now, rather than when it is too late. Good luck with it.
Recruit some SuperUsers
Not sure how many trainers you have or if you are a multi-site operation, but it might be helpful to identify a few staff with an aptitude/enthusiasm for IT to volunteer as SuperUsers ?
During the rollout they could provide an initial point of contact for basic queries from colleagues and feedback to training team on FAQs etc.
Good Luck
Charlotte