A Guide on How to Effectively Train Your New Employees

Hiring new employees is a complex process comprised of various phases, different personalities and work styles and the potential for immediate turnover. It's integral for businesses to create a streamlined onboarding and training process to enhance the new employee's experience and forge a strong working relationship.

Here are some key considerations to keep in mind to effectively train your new employees.

1. Outline an onboarding process

The structure is everything when recruiting, onboarding, training and retaining new employees. As there are so many steps and people involved in onboarding, it's essential to have the process mapped out to create consistency.

Outline the various steps in the process, starting with the approval for the new hire and creating a job description, to what paperwork needs to be filled out on the first day. Creating a strong framework for new hires will help your organization identify friction points and determine how to improve in the future.

2. Start before day one

A new employee's first couple of days are typically dedicated to administrative work, such as reading the employee handbook and getting to know the team. Help your new hire hit the ground running by using onboarding software to start before day one. For example, employee onboarding software by Goco allows HR to trigger the onboarding flow before the employee's first day, so they can provide their banking information and personal data before coming to work.

Starting the onboarding experience before the first day at work can also help the employee feel more comfortable when they arrive. Give them access to the employee handbook, and incorporate information about your company culture. Providing photos and profiles of the team can also help ease the transition.

3. Create SOPs

If your company doesn't have standard operating procedures (SOPs) outlined for the various tasks that make the business run, it's a missed opportunity. These documents can mitigate the learning curve when onboarding new employees, especially when there's a gap in role fulfillment - i.e., if you're unable to fill a role before the previous occupant leaves, these documents can help with the knowledge gap.

Have your team create SOPs using a template that outlines:

• The name of the task
• The programs used
• When the task should be completed and how often
• The reason the task needs to be done
• Contingencies on other tasks and roles
• The steps of the process

Assemble these in a company playbook or Wiki so new hires can access the information as needed during their training.

4. Allow ample time

Have patience and grace when welcoming a new employee to the team; training will probably take longer than you think. It could take months for a new hire to become entirely comfortable and competent in their role. Business cycles— such as seasonality and other busy periods— have a way of highlighting fresh challenges for new employees.

5. Create a feedback plan

Create a structured feedback plan to empower your new hire to share their challenges, questions and suggestions. During a new hire’s first few weeks, it's beneficial to have a daily check-in. Let your new employee know that they can use this time to ask any questions and share candid feedback about their experience so far.

Consider incorporating longer-term feedback sessions at the one-month, three-month, six-month and 12-month marks. These sessions are also an opportunity to review the existing process and determine if there's room for improvement.

6. Use collaboration

Create a culture of mentorship and support by empowering existing employees to take on a collaborative role in the training process. You can even create a mentorship program with high-performance employees to facilitate training and feedback collection.

It's common for employees to feel restrained when talking to leadership. Having a peer mentorship program will help the new hire feel more comfortable sharing feedback and asking questions.

7. Adapt to their needs

Finally, having structure and processes for training is beneficial, but there should be room for adaptation. Everyone learns differently, and having room for those differences in the onboarding process is a must for long-term retention. Some new hires will learn more by diving into the process, while others benefit from observing and taking notes. Work with new hires to determine what learning style works best for them.

Creating a welcoming, constructive training process will help new employees ease into their role with the company— the better the initial experience, the better the engagement and retention over time.