Conventional wisdom tells us that, when we hire employees, they will need some time to learn the ropes of their job, the industry, and your company in particular, before they start making money for the business. Hiring costs vary widely by location, responsibilities, and amount of training needed. However, every position from window washer to CFO requires on-the-job training at the outset.
Many companies invest time and energy in the hiring process. However, not all companies do the necessary onboarding after an employee has started their job to make sure the employee understands his job processes, industry standards, and essential functions. When this information is not laid out explicitly, companies see considerable variations in how newly hired employees perform.
If you are hiring great, qualified individuals with excellent work histories that are not performing their functions to your standard, then it’s time to review your company’s onboarding processes.
Basic Employee Training
Every business needs to have barebones employee training that is uniform for every new employee. This would consist of:
- Orientation – introducing the new employee to his or her workspace, coworkers, and boss.
- Employee manual – showing each team member what the company expects from them, including any industry standards which must be met, company-wide policies and procedures, and any all-staff meetings.
- Introduction to the company – while many new employees will have researched your business, there is likely additional information about your company that isn’t covered on the internet. Provide your new hire with necessary information about your business, its goals, and the overall plan for success. This will give them more information and help them understand how they fit into the overall strategy.
The above is an excellent start for any employee to get a firm foothold in their new job.
Individual Employee Training
Once the general training has been completed, it’s essential to then help a new employee understand all of the elements of their job. A common occurrence in many companies is that an employee receives his or her general training, then is given a job description and told to get started.
This often isn’t enough to make sure they take care of every element of their jobs. Here are two simple policies you can implement in your company to help new employees get a real sense of their position.
1. Ask existing employees to write a report to their team leads that shares what they do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. This report should also give a quick overview of the procedures needed to accomplish these tasks.
It should be made clear here that the employees are not writing a manual for people to come in and take over their jobs. Instead, as your business grows, these employees will likely need to offload some of their tasks or will be moving up to a leadership position, and they don’t want to have to constantly train new people.
2. Assign trainers to specific, high traffic areas. Some areas do not have the time or resources to train new employees. That’s likely why you are making new hires! If this is the case, it would be prudent to assign one experienced employee in that area to train new hires. This may seem counterintuitive on the outset, but if you need new people to hit the ground running, someone with the necessary experience needs to get them on their feet, fast.
As a final note, quality control is a crucial part of both of the above techniques. Employee training reports must be reviewed and approved by a team lead before new hires utilize them – and those training others must be scrutinized to ensure they are using the latest systems and are remaining available to answer questions and provide advice.
Training new employees can be tricky. You are likely hiring new people because you need them to start work – now. However, if you have systems, policies, and procedures in place, you can go far to helping a new hire to hit the ground running.
Do you need to make vital new hires? Are you ready to turn your business into a smooth, well-oiled machine? Business Success Consulting Group is here to assist you in building the right team for your company. Contact us today and find out how we can help.
