When welcoming newbies to your organization, one standard operating procedure that almost all companies do is to get them onboard and train them. However, if you feel like your existing ways and systems aren’t that effective and you feel like something is off, then it’s wise to stay on this page. You could have been doing something wrong or must have missed a crucial step in the process.
Fortunately, there are many tactics, advice, and ways to improvise training and onboarding sessions today. For instance, many modern approaches like just-in-time learning and other tech tools or software can aid institutions in developing core competencies among their staff, even on their first day. Onboarding is an important time for employees to measure and assess whether your company is where they’d like to grow and contribute their efforts, so make this crucial time count.
To know more about such approaches, consider this guide below:
1.Create An Unforgettable Onboarding Experience.
One of the best approaches to making an effective onboarding for your new hires is to make it unique and unforgettable. Ensure that the entire department or team is engaged and committed to this event. In the first few weeks after a new employee starts with your organization, sending them an introductory email is a good idea.
Describe the new hire’s responsibilities and share a few facts about them. The existing team will be able to brainstorm some ideas to make the onboarding more memorable for the new staff. And this will definitely make the new hire feel welcomed and ready to succeed on their first day.
You can consider the following tips to make their onboarding a little more thoughtful:
- You can go all out and display a welcome banner sign in your office. This is particularly effective when you’re onboarding a batch of new hires. Have their names on it and a huge ‘Welcome Aboard’ writing. Such a trivial step can instantly make your new employees feel valued.
- Ensure they have everything they need at their work desk. Get their ID cards ready, as well as any paperwork needed for them to fill out.
- Assign a buddy or a training supervisor to each new hire. They can shadow and work alongside their buddies in the beginning weeks of their onboarding.
- Lastly, this could mean spending some bucks, but giving them a gift or company merchandise would be a nice touch.
All of these awesome onboarding ideas can make your new hire feel even more welcome and excited to join your company. Also, you can create a program and an afterparty so everyone can meet and greet each other.
2. Consider Applying Diverse Learning Styles.
Engaging new hires through employee guides or worksheets is possible, but you’ll need much more to do so. These tools aren’t enough for them to grasp everything about their jobs. While independence is a skill that they should develop in the company, they’ll need support and help in the beginning weeks. Onboarding should be customized to each new hire and their position.
According to their job position and roles, applying diverse learning styles and methods is essential. Here are some considerations:
- Incorporate multimedia in their training programs. For example, insert videos and audio clips to promote advanced learning. Using a gamification strategy will allow them to perk up through such resources.
- For visual learners, it’s important to implement training methods with many textual and graphic elements. Visual learners tend to look at them and learn more effectively.
- For those with auditory preferences, one learning style that might work better for them is to have a one-on-one discussion or training meeting where the trainer can explain things to them in person.
- Another learning style is to provide tests, exams, and quizzes to grasp the knowledge your new employees acquired. This is helpful for companies that come with jargon and complex work processes. Having mock exams can better prepare the employee for real-life situations at work.
3. Build On Your Employees’ Strengths.
During employee assessment, it’s wise to ask them to complete a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). This will guide your company to discover what its strengths are to leverage them. In training, employees are usually identified as having areas for improvement, and their weaker skills are developed. But another effective approach is to rev up their strengths even more.
Hence, it’s important to spot these skills and develop them further. To come up with plans that’d hone your new hires’ skills, spend time learning more about their interests and strengths during the training and onboarding processes.
4. Come Up With A Healthy Intensity Of Training.
Training needs to be well-balanced for your new hires not to feel stressed out and overwhelmed. When employees are overtrained, they could experience information overload, drastically decreasing their motivation. While it might seem like this would help them get up to speed faster, human brains aren’t capable of retaining that much information. Providing them with much information too soon will have adverse effects. Therefore, allow your new staff to learn at their own pace and time.
On the other hand, it’s also dangerous to conduct lenient and passive training. By letting employees figure out everything on their own, they might not be able to attain the training goals you’ve set. Employee morale is negatively affected when employees feel like they don’t receive the necessary support for their onboarding and training phase. This could make you lose amazing talents. Hence, it’s crucial to find a balance between under and over-training.
5. Be Open To Employees’ Feedback And Opinions.
Communication makes employees feel valued, and it’s a best practice in employee training. For an effective training and onboarding approach, try to be open to your staff’s feedback and opinions. This will allow you to modify your programs accordingly. Like anything else, it won’t hurt to have another set of eyes check your processes to see which steps need to be changed.
It’s best to solicit feedback during training while employees are still retaining information. Check-in meetings should be included in your training timeline, and employees should be encouraged to be honest about how learning is going. After all, a more successful training program is driven by feedback for long-term changes and immediate adjustments.
Conclusion.
There are many reasons why employee training is necessary. Getting new employees properly established requires an effective onboarding process and training phases. However, applying the right approaches is crucial so your employees and your company can attain your business goals together. With the approaches and tips stated above, you’re now ready to welcome new hires to your company.
