New hires can inject a lot energy into any company but if they are not well trained, they may become dissatisfied or frustrated with their job. Here are six tips to ensure that your employee training prepares your new hires for their new positions and places them on the road to a successful placement in your company. And remember, even temporary and contract employees should undergo onboarding and training, even if it’s a compacted
1. Introduce your company’s Culture
Each company has built its own unique culture. For new employees who are not fully integrated into the company yet, they can feel like an outsider. When you introduce each new hire into how your company works with ideas or problem-solving, you will be helping them to feel like part of the team. ExplainAnd it will help your new hire get the confidence and support they need to do their job well.
2. Keep training relaxed
You will need to cover a lot of ground in new employee training, but stressing out your new hires is not the objective. Your training staff should work hard, but in a relaxed and supportive environment. That includes clear instructions and giving your new hires the reasoning behind every activity they undertake.
Relaxed training atmospheres should also include positive and constructive feedback. Too much negative feedback causes negative learning experiences and therefore less learning. Positive feedback, including reinforcing learning by showing acceptance of mistakes, will keep the training relaxed and still engaging.
3. Individualize training
Each individual learns differently and will take away different things from your training, so try to personalize some of the training methods used. Personalized training can include introducing a mentor or another trainer to work with the new hire throughout the training period to better connect each new hire to other people in the company.
Mentors can be beneficial to new hires during training as key sources of support, information and encouragement, and they should continue in that role after training as a sounding board for the new employee.
4. Stagger the training
Since no one can learn every aspect of a job at one time, new hire training can also be staggered into more manageable blocks. When your new hire has learned one skill, then you can move the training into a new area.
You can also add in direct training with experts and seasoned employees who can come in and take over training in their areas of expertise. By staggering the training and using experts, you will also ensure that each new hire has been thoroughly trained.
5. Be ready to go
When a new employee arrives for their training and you are not ready to go, it could convey to the new hire that they are just not that important. Have all of the materials ready, guest speakers, mentors, and every other aspect of the training program prepared well in advance.
New hires are nervous, and your trainers might be, too. In order to get the most of training and reduce nerves, lighten the mood by getting the group to share some laughs. You can introduce games, use energizing multi-media activities, or make your point with some funny images or movie clips.
New hires are invaluable to your company’s success. Follow these six tips and your employee training program will ensure that your new employees will hit the ground running.
