Help creating training plan
Hello all,
I recently took over management of a coffee house that has been in existence for about 20 years. Unfortunately, there has never been a structured system of training, so my baristas understand very little about coffee. I was planning on developing a very structured system of training/recertification. I'd like to train all new employees to a much higher level than my current baristas. I'd like to put together a pretty inclusive document I can use to train new baristas and let my current employees read to get them up to speed. Baristas would be required to re-certify annually, thus keeping them sharp and hopefully passionate about coffee. Anybody who is not responsive to these changes, is going to have to be let go for the sake of progress. I was wondering if somebody has developed a document like this and could possibly provide me with an outline or maybe the actual document so I can get some ideas. Also, I would like to hear from some trainers who took on the task of retraining an entire store. Successes, failures, whatever.
Thanks,
Ryan
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jacob Casella on
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Ryan, I'm in the midst of a similar program. It sounds like you have the right idea. Too early to say for sure how successful I've been, but it is starting to shape up pretty good. I would say the biggest things I have learned so far, and I'm still learning, are:
-Structure is great! Break coffee education apart into small, easily-swallowed chunks. This also makes it easy to structure testing, so you can see if any of it actually stuck.
-Mix up your materials. Do hands on education, written stuff, slide-shows, videos...hitting people with different media will help them learn.
-I like to think of myself as training towards theory, practice, and palate. Theory is all words, it's their ability to talk and think about coffee & coffee brewing. Practice is their ability to actually make coffee, on an espresso bar or otherwise. And palate is their ability to taste and describe the product of all these labors--and also to troubleshoot problems.
-Follow-up is vital. Check in on your trainees at set, regular intervals after the training, so you can see where they're excelling, and where they might have slipped.
-There are some great resources out there. Scott Rao's Barista Handbook is probably the single best book I've bought in terms of putting things immediately into practice on the floor. There are some cafes that will give you access to their training documents--you can buy Gimme!'s very excellent manual for a pretty modest fee. And attend any classes/workshops you can get to, check the SCAA & BGA. I've taken a few classes with TampTamp and recently attended the SCAA Instuctor workshop--they've not only helped me personally as a barista, they've completely refreshed my attitude towards instruction.
-Don't do it alone! Find some people you can bring up as your assistant trainers. Even if they are not responsible for delivering the core training lectures/demonstrations/testing, you need baristas who not only do everything the right way, but will keep an eye on trainees and step in to help where needed.
That's all I have off the top of my head. Best of luck, let us know how your training system shapes up!
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