Chip Tarver's Ipod Information - Pal's Videos

Story courtesy of http://www.timesnews.net/article.dna?_StoryID=3593317


Pal's employee training videos will utilize video iPod system

Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - By J.H. OSBORNE - Times-News KINGSPORT -

Training for employees of Kingsport-based Pal's Sudden Service restaurant chain could soon seem like "magic," thanks to a Texas-based company's development of "iPod training," Pal's President and CEO Thom Crosby said Monday.

Pal's expected implementation of the system - customized to the Pal's way of doing things - is set to coincide with the national rollout of a generic version of the system next month, said T.J. Schier, president of Texas-based Incentivize Solutions.

Schier and a production crew were in Northeast Tennessee Monday filming on location at the Pal's headquarters in Kingsport, as well as at Pal's restaurants in the area.

The end result will be a series of training videos - but these are not your father's training videos.

Crosby said the new training system, which utilizes video iPods, will be an improvement for management and for trainees.

"It will make what we've been doing seem like longhand math," Crosby said. "On-the-job training is absolutely the best way to rapidly bring people to the level you want. That's the real magic we'll see with this."

A major difference offered by the iPod approach, as developed by Incentivize Solutions, is the possibility to offer training for each work task directly in the work station in which the task will be performed, Crosby and Schier said.

Crosby said added benefits of the new technology is it can be almost immediately updated, when needed, and employees can be trained when business is slow - but experience busier conditions via the in-hand video presentation.

Incentivize Solutions develops custom training materials for businesses nationwide.

Schier is author of "Send Flowers to the Living! Rewards, Contests and Incentives to Build Employee Loyalty" and the 2004 releases "Now That's Service That Sells!" and "Now That's Quick-Service That Sells."

Schier said he had been planning to utilize audio iPods as a base for custom training materials - and then video iPods were introduced.

"It opened up a whole new avenue to train employees differently using video - which is not new, but this puts it in a format that is much more effective," Schier said. "We've come up with a thing called iPod training. It gives us the capability to do something we haven't done before. Essentially, it's using the new video iPods to better train today's generation of employees. Instead of having a employees sit in front of a 12-minute DVD, we film everything in clips and build playlists by job position. So they watch a 30- or 60-second clip right in their work station and can practice it versus watching a video elsewhere and forgetting everything."

The manager and the employee being trained will both have an audio connection to the iPod during training sessions, Schier said.

"It's a lot more effective to bring the training tool right out to the station rather than putting the employee into an office with a video," Schier said. "Especially when you don't have a lot of space."

Pal's will be the second chain to begin using the system, which Incentivize Solutions first tested in a Dallas-based chain.

Schier said the company chose to film at Pal's because of the local chain's national recognition for quality and innovation in the restaurant industry.

"Because Pal's is so well-respected and well-known in the restaurant industry, we are creating a set of generic training modules for quick-service restaurant employees and managers," Schier said. "It will allow someone to buy a fully loaded iPod with about 80 minutes of generic training materials for restaurant employees and managers, based on a lot of what Pal's teaches here at some of their classes."

Pal's restaurants will use a custom version of Incentivize Solutions' iPod training. A generic version of the training system, using footage of Pal's as a base, will be marketed to other chains - or single-store "mom and pops."

"A great thing about what they're doing is that it will be available in a generic version that even a small operation will be able to afford," said Pal Barger, founder of the Pal's Sudden Service chain. "Even the small business owners who can't afford to develop a customized version can get the benefit of the concept."

Kingsport-based Pal's operates 20 restaurants in the region and employs about 830 people.

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Lots more articles and reviews like this are at http://www.ipods-and-onlinevideo-reviews.com.

Chip Tarver