Lauren MillerA great onboarding and training process is vital for the success of your employees and organization. As your team grows and evolves, your onboarding plan should follow suit.
Many companies have experienced these growing pains firsthand with the shift to hybrid and remote work. What once worked in-office or even six months ago, may no longer be effective.
So, what do you need to consider when building an onboarding and training plan for new hires?
Katie Capuzzo, Sales Enablement Manager at CloserIQ, has built a proven and adaptable process. She shared her insights and advice for successfully onboarding employees.
1) Timing is everything
When planning out your onboarding and training process, it’s not only about the content. It’s also about when you’re teaching it. It can be tempting to pack as much information as possible in a short period of time. However, too much content at once can hurt retention and lead to repetitive training sessions.
Instead, focus on the information that is critical to that moment. Start with broad overviews of your core training material and get more narrow and individualized over time. This may lengthen your onboarding process, but it will result in better trained and more confident team members.
2) Recalibrate often and be adaptable
Workplace adaptability is a necessary skill that helps us problem solve, implement changes, and more. Onboarding and training plans are no different. They shouldn’t be written in stone. With each hiring class, you’ll learn something new. Set the expectations for yourself and your team that changes will most likely be frequent and ongoing. It may not be the training material itself that changes, but the delivery method.
Have a meeting with everyone involved in onboarding, from enablement to reporting managers. Discuss the process and assign trackable responsibilities. Recalibrate often to discuss what worked or what may need to be tweaked.
3) Always ask for feedback
Even if you have an idea of what was well received or needs improvement, implement a feedback process. Sending an anonymous survey to new hires on their onboarding experience is a great option. It can affirm things that went well and show areas that need improvement.
With every change you make to your onboarding and training process, remember to walk the walk. Try to put yourself in the mindset of a new hire and go through the steps you’re asking of them. The schedule and instructions may not be as simple as you think.
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