Best Practices for Training New Employees

 

New hire training is a critical activity on your employee onboarding checklist. It equips you with the required knowledge and skills to function effectively in your job role. 

This article discusses some employee training best practices. We are also including a section on new hire orientation best practices. Last but not least, you will also find some real life implementations of the best practices for training new employees. We have selected Amazon’s training programme for new hires.

What Is a New Employee Training?

 

Onboarding training for new employees confers confidence in the new hires and ensures familiarity with the employer’s policies and procedures. It also offers specific insight into their roles.

On your first day at work, you are required to be onboarded by your employer. An onboarding buddy assist you in presenting the core values of your new workplace. In addition, new employee training refers to all related to gamification training. With game-based learning, games become a part of your learning process.

 

5 Benefits of having a new employee training

With a proper training process for new employees, the following benefits will be achieved:

1. It teaches employees to be problem-solvers.
2. It improves your engagement with your job.
3. It increases efficiency in processes resulting in financial gain for your employer.
4. It enhances your capacity to master the work tools and reduces the frustration.
5. It enhances your capacity to improve your skills.

 

The Average Cost of Training a New Employee

According to the Association for Talent Development, business organizations spend an average of $1,252 per employee on training and development initiatives.

According to Forbes, another report stated in the 2014 Training Industry Report from Training Magazine that the annual training budget of the US small businesses grossed an average of $308,000 in 2014, with the retail and wholesale sector spending more than $500,000. 

The average cost to hire and train a new employee varies based on the following reasons:

• Company size
• The new hire’s skillset
• The kind of training

The task of getting a great value for the cost of training a new hire is centred on the best practices for training new employees, such as the following:

• Tailoring the training to suit the employees’ needs
• Providing the right employee training structure and adequate training time
• Embracing experiential learning method
• Entertaining the feedback of the new hires
• Leveraging technological tools and automation

 

New Employee Training Best Practices

 

Training is a very important element of an employees work life. HR Dive illustrates this with some key data.  80% of employees believe regular training is more important than formal workplace training. Additionally, 89% want training anytime and anywhere they need to do their job.

If your employer follows the best practices for training new employees, you are bound to derive work satisfaction from working for a company. This is committed to helping you achieve success from the early stages of your employee lifecycle. In turn, this will aid you in staying committed to a company for a long time.

 

7 Best Practices for Training New Employees

New hire orientation is the process of welcoming you as a new employee to a workplace.

In the following points, we will discuss the employee training best practices that will help unleash your potential. We believe that these staff training best practices will assist you in achieving peak performance in your new role.

 

1. Define a Path to Growth

Provision of a clear path to career growth is one of the best practices of new hire orientation that enables you to work for a long period in an organisation. This step outlines what you need to achieve to move ahead in the career ladder of a company. If, on the contrary, you feel like you have no space for development in the company, you might start pursuing new job opportunities somewhere else. 

 

2. Have a Training Agenda

This is one of the most important employee training best practices. The training agenda will contain a list of the goals and performance indicators that will measure the success of the training exercise. Furthermore, it will ensure that the new hires’ training is well structured and planned. 

 

3. Use a Training Checklist and Training Flowchart

A training checklist is the comprehensive list of all activities of the training exercise. Using a checklist in employee training will assure you of carrying out every activity without omissions. The training checklist can be presented to you as a part of your preboarding programme. You can find a training flowchart in our article Onboarding Flowchart.

 

4. Use Digital Tools and Automate Whenever Possible

Digital training tools help boost engagement by enhancing your understanding of the exercise. For example, e-learning for training employees is changing the face of traditional training methods.

Automation of paperwork provides a great relief when starting a new job. We recommend that you use a Pre & Onboarding Task Manager system. Saving time on tedious tasks allows you to concentrate on other vital activities.

 

5. Train for Culture

A training programme created in accordance with best practices of successful companies will help you build the desired engagement with your job. This can be achieved by not focusing your training exclusively on the job role, but also training for culture. During the Preboarding phase, the new hire training will aid you to have a mastery of the company’s culture.

 

6. Schedule 1:1 Meetings

Scheduling of one-on-one time aids you in interacting effectively with other workers in the organisation and building the proper connection with them. Thus, 1:1 meetings assist your transition into your role and responsibilities with ease. The 1:1 meetings with your manager and onboarding buddy will be of particular importance. 

 

7. Leverage Interactive Training Content

You are provided with training materials and content that will aid your understanding of work tools, instruments, and processes.  

 

7 Strategies for Your New Employee Training Plan

 

This offers the best practices for training new employees to aid them in achieving roles and work tools mastery. The following are the strategies for developing a new employee training plan:

 

1. Determinate the new hire training procedure before the commencement

Your company decides what it wants you to know and how the training will be done, whether online or one-on-one physical training. Also, your employer should put in place a proper training structure that simplifies the process.

2. Delegate mentors

Training and mentoring new employees will boost their performance. They will feel valued and learn from someone that is already a part of the organization. In addition, an onboarding buddy will guide you through certain tasks till you can undertake them independently.

 

3. Allocate training resources

The training tools will be provided, and the new employees will have enough time to learn the new procedures and practices.

 

4. Set achievable goals for the newly employed workers

Your employer will set clear and realistic goals to aid your understanding of what is expected from you in your new role. Also, your employer should determine your level of experience and skills to guide him in establishing the short-term goals you must full-fill.

 

5. Implement team-building activities

this helps strengthen the bond between the new employees and other workers in the organization. It aids harmony and teamwork among them.

 

6. Reward employees for their progress

Your employer will reward you for fulfilling a particular milestone in training. By doing this, you will increase your motivation to put in your best.

 

7. Offer regular feedback

You will have various opportunities to give your feedback on the overall new hire training exercise. Through the onboarding survey(s), your employer can discover what to improve.

The Importance of New Manager Training

 

The position of a manager is a position of power, of strategic decision making and planning and ensuring oversight. But this is not all. According to Gallup, managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units.

They are also influential for team morale, satisfaction levels and engagement. All of these factors are linked to productivity and similar business outcomes. The managers are the ones that can build a culture of high productivity.

Planning for a New Manager Training

Only 1 out of 10 people possesses the talent to manage, according to Gallup. This implies that good managers don’t just exist in a natural state, and companies just need to attract them.

Therefore, a new manager needs to undergo new manager training to gain insights and skills for performing. Again, we are talking here both about a newly employed manager, and a first time manager receiving an internal promotion.

A new manager training is a set of activities designed to empower you. In cases where the new manager is an existing employee, the new supervisor training will be a component of a crossboarding process.

 

Examples of New Manager Training Topics

HR training for the new managers is very important before new managers settle into roles in their new companies. New manager training topics cover the following:

• Industry-specific regulations
• Creating an inclusive workforce
• Effective communication and Conflict resolution
• Nurturing talent, coaching, and employee retention
• Identifying training needs
• Delegating responsibilities and prioritising tasks
• Providing constructive feedback and employee coaching

Management training for new managers will offer you strategic skills in leadership, supervision, and project management. Other management skills training for new managers include team-building, problem-solving and talent management.

As a new manager, your success is defined by how well you allow other people to get the work done. Thus, you must strive to bring out the best in them.

 

The Three Strategic Roles of New Manager Training

Learning How to Handle People Issues: new manager training will expose you to the powerful strategies you need to become a better, more confident, and respected leader in your workplace.

Gaining Skills from the Get-go: new supervisor training allows you to do away with learning management skills by trial and error alone.

Effective communication is paramount to the success of an organisation: a new manager training programme will help you improve your communication skills.

First-Time Manager Training Sets the Right Tone for Performance: first-time manager training spurs you to be goal-oriented in your role. A first time manager training programme will instil in you the confidence to manage difficult situations and employees.

 

Important Tips for First-Time Managers

We have compiled a list of important tips for first-time managers:

• Do not stop learning. Always endeavour to open your mind to learning new things and making each day a learning experience. Also, always leverage the organisation’s learning and development resources. We recommend to use an e-learning for employees tool.
• Get to know your team members. When you know who your team members are, you can deduce how you manage each member based on their differences and get the best out of them.
• Find a mentor. Mentorship is key in leadership. A mentor will play a crucial role in the first-time manager training by providing useful ideas and sharing experiences.
• Ask for feedback. Ask those you work with for their feedback for you to know what to improve on in your managerial tasks. This will give you more confidence and drive you to achieve better results.

Best Practices for Training New Employees: Amazon’s Implementation

 

If we were to look at some examples of best training practices of successful companies, Amazon provides a good case. They have a global workforce of over 245,000. They have a very strategic approach to training new employees.  

Amazon provides training opportunities for both hourly workers and fixed contract employees. In fact, they are stating that most managers started as hourly workers. Amazon’s Career Skills is “a free, on-site training and development programme available to all hourly Amazon employees beginning on day one.” This programme covers topics such as resume building, effective speaking, time management, spreadsheets etc.

Another upskilling programme at Amazon is the Career Choice. Its goal is to give hourly associates, that had been with the company for more than a year, the skills to move into in-demand industries and occupations. With this programme, Amazon pre-pays 95% of tuition and fees for associates to earn certificates and associate degrees.

 

Best Practices for Training New Employees: Conclusions

 

According to HR Dive, 93% of employees want easy-to-complete training. Also, 91% want their training to be personalised and relevant. 

Acknowledging employee needs is one of the best practices for creating training programmes for new employees. After all, an employment relationship is a two way street. Both parties have to give something in order to obtain specific outcomes.

For example, introdus, an employee onboarding software, can help train new hires. In addition, it is a tool that will streamline the employee training exercise. introdus utilises video content to engage and appeal to visual learners.