Train Your New Hire To Success — Part 1
When it comes to training new hires there are multiple schools of thoughts as to how to get the employee up to speed and optimally set them up for success. Some leaders believe it is best to have them sit with other contributors in their department, shadow them and absorb all the information and techniques they will need to know. After several days or weeks they will eventually just “get it”. Another common training method is actually no training at all. They are just “thrown into the fire”, asking questions as they encounter them and troubleshooting problems as they arise. Another method of training is to have someone (the team leader is best) sit with them, brief them on the industry and their responsibilities and after they have a solid background to then slowly ease them into their responsibilities little by little. As with most things in business, there is not necessarily any right or wrong way to do this, depending on what you’re are trying to accomplish. I have experienced all of the above mentioned schools of thought regarding new hire training in my career and would like to start by dissecting each methodology.
When you on-board a new employee one of your goals as a leader is to have them get into good habits and proceed with the way you want them to conduct themselves. Existing employees, even those who are successful, surely handle certain responsibilities in ways in which you would love nothing more than to change. With veteran employees however, that is a difficult undertaking. With a new hire you have a much greater likelihood of molding them into your vision and you should therefore take the time to express your instructions.
The majority of companies out there use some sort of the shadowing training technique. By placing a new hire right next to an experienced contributor they will absorb all the information and within short order be prepared to go out on their own. However, most of us have been through this sort of training in the past. If you are anything like me, when you are done shadowing the experienced employee and sit down to finally contribute yourself, you just freeze. Why is this? Because although you learned all the information taught to you, you did not learn how to use all that information. Learning by doing must therefore be at the very least, a component of your training plan.
Companies that are in a personnel crunch and need the employee to contribute almost immediately are generally those who are thrown right into it. Many ownership groups with this training philosophy believe that learning by doing is the fastest and most reliable way for someone to truly learn what they are tasked with. While there are studies that show that learning by doing is, in fact, the most efficient way of training someone, there are also many studies that show that without the necessary foundational information it can take 2–3 times longer for them to truly master their job function.
There are also many companies that have a more formalized training process where someone or a group of people take time out of their schedule to sit with the new hire and teach them everything there is to know about the company. The new employee then slowly transitions into being hands on, first by practicing and then in real time with real responsibilities and/or clients. This is the most thorough method. However, it is time consuming and requires a leap of faith and investment that the new employee will absorb and internalize the information as well as put it to action.
There are positive proponents to all three methodologies. When on-boarding a new employee, aim to take a hybrid approach. In the next post I will describe, in detail, how to plot the training course to set your new hire up for success.
