Why Onboarding is one of the Most Essential Parts of Employee Training

When you think of “employee job train­ing,” what comes to mind? Teach­ing your employ­ees how to use a new tech­nol­ogy? A class to help them improve their cus­tomer ser­vice skills? Or how about man­age­r­ial train­ing for your super­vi­sors? While all of these are impor­tant train­ing pro­grams to imple­ment, one of the most essen­tial train­ing pieces, onboard­ing, may actu­ally be the most impor­tant part of employee train­ing, yet it is often over­looked or not given the atten­tion it deserves.

Onboard­ing, as defined by Wikipedia is, “the mech­a­nism through which new employ­ees acquire the nec­es­sary knowl­edge, skills, and behav­iors to become effec­tive orga­ni­za­tional mem­bers and insid­ers. Tac­tics used in this process include for­mal meet­ings, lec­tures, videos, printed mate­ri­als, or computer-based ori­en­ta­tions to intro­duce new­com­ers to their new jobs and orga­ni­za­tions.” In other words, onboard­ing is much more than just “employee ori­en­ta­tion” – it is the whole process by which you wel­come new employ­ees to your com­pany, ori­ent them to your cul­ture, and train them for suc­cess. Com­pa­nies who have struc­tured onboard­ing pro­grams have employ­ees who will stay longer – one study found that 69% of employ­ees will stay longer than three years if there is a ded­i­cated onboard­ing pro­gram in place.

Does your com­pany have a strate­gic onboard­ing train­ing pro­gram? Do you have a pro­to­col in place for both your in-house employ­ees and those who work remotely? A shock­ingly high 90% of new hires decide in the first six months on the job whether or not they will stay with a com­pany. Employ­ees who don’t feel pre­pared or com­pe­tent enough in their jobs tend to have higher turnover, have lower morale, and are not as pro­fi­cient at serv­ing cus­tomers. A suc­cess­ful onboard­ing pro­gram requires a ded­i­cated plan, train­ing, and team to engage your new employ­ees, from day one. Below are some essen­tial points to keep in mind when design­ing an onboard­ing pro­gram that will train your new hires for a suc­cess­ful career with your company.

Engage new employ­ees imme­di­ately with a large wel­come mat

Join­ing a new com­pany is a bit like being the new kid in school. Every­thing feels awk­ward and new hires feel unsure. Do you remem­ber that feel­ing of wan­der­ing around the lunch room look­ing for a place to sit? That feel­ing cap­tures what it’s like to come into a new com­pany where you don’t know the cul­ture, job duties, or what is expected of you to be suc­cess­ful at your job. Com­pa­nies often throw new employ­ees into the mix, assum­ing that the estab­lished staff will make them feel wel­come, but this is not always the case.

To ensure that your new hires feel com­fort­able, intro­duce them to the team – in per­son. (Don’t just send out an email, in other words.) If the new employ­ees work vir­tu­ally, set up video con­fer­enc­ing so that they can place a name with faces for the peo­ple on your team. Assign a per­son or a few peo­ple to be on the “wel­come team”; mean­ing, the per­son or team who takes the new hire around the office, ori­ents them to the pro­ce­dures and cul­ture, and is avail­able to answer ques­tions and act as a men­tor. Min­i­mize the feel­ings of uncer­tainty and of feel­ing lost for your new hires as much as you can.

Stream­line your process and have a con­sis­tent onboard­ing program

If your onboard­ing process is hap­haz­ard, chances are, your new staff mem­bers will each get dif­fer­ent pieces of essen­tial infor­ma­tion, but not nec­es­sar­ily the whole, com­plete pack­age. Design a strate­gic onboard­ing process for each new hire so that you are guar­an­tee­ing that there are no redun­dan­cies, that all new employ­ees receive the same treat­ment, and that noth­ing falls through the cracks when train­ing your new team.

Don’t over­whelm your employ­ees in the onboard­ing process

Tak­ing on a new job is a stress­ful endeavor, and all too often, new employ­ees feel like they are drink­ing out of a fire hose. Make the process more pleas­ant by break­ing down your onboard­ing train­ing into sec­tions or phases so that the employ­ees have enough time to assim­i­late the new infor­ma­tion before they move onto the next phase in their ori­en­ta­tion and train­ing process. Plan to spread out your onboard­ing train­ing over a period of a few weeks, or even a few months, so that you can have a cul­ture that allows your new hires to adapt and feel com­pe­tent at each task before they move onto the next. Though it may cost more upfront to not have your new employ­ees be 100% pro­duc­tive from the begin­ning, the long-term cost of retain­ing tal­ent is far worth it.

Onboard­ing doesn’t end after the first few weeks

Onboard­ing doesn’t just end after your employ­ees have filled out their new-hire paper­work, met the team, and started work­ing. A suc­cess­ful onboard­ing pro­gram requires follow-up on a fre­quent basis to make sure that your new employ­ees are under­stand­ing their jobs, get­ting any ques­tions answered, and are inte­grat­ing with the team. It takes a long time to become a part of a new cul­ture and for one to hit his or her stride, so be patient with your new hires, and give them ample sup­port over the first few months on the job.

How can you improve your onboard­ing train­ing process?

Read this onboard­ing case study, and learn more about how you can use onboard­ing train­ing to improve turnover rates and increase cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion.