Employee New Hire Training: A Tale of Two Employees

F R O M M I C H A E L S & A S S O C I A T E S

Employee New Hire Training: A Tale of Two Employees

Beverly Tester, Director of Instructional Design

When I think of all the employee new hire training I’ve experienced in my career, a famous quote comes to mind:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...”

Although I’m sure Charles Dickens didn’t intend his words from A Tale of Two Cities to be applied to such a concrete topic, they do portray the wide range of onboarding and orientation programs that are

implemented every day. To illustrate this, let’s follow a tale of two employees who experience very different new hire programs so you can determine how to make your own training the best it can be.

Program Purpose

Sydney Charlie

Sydney is so excited to start her new career at Acme Company! In her offer letter, she learned that she will be taking an orientation class that will prepare her for the job.

Charlie just received his new hire kit in the mail from Zeta Company. He’s eager to read about the onboarding program he will be taking.

What’s the difference between orientation and onboarding? One primary difference is the program’s purpose:

Orientation focuses on swift acculturation through presentation and little or no training. Consider this: the 2012 Allied Workforce Mobility study reports that 25% of companies surveyed say their new hire program does not include any training. It is typically conducted by Human Resources or administrative staff at a company, and it focuses on:

 Getting new hire paperwork signed.

 Presenting an introduction to the company and its mission, vision and values.

 Getting new hires “up and running” as quickly as possible.

On the other hand, a full-fledged onboarding program has a more comprehensive purpose. It focuses on

accelerating the employees’ ability to perform effectively in their new role, but through a longer term

approach. It typically includes an initial orientation plus several other customized segments presented and

supported by subject matter experts and managers. Onboarding helps employees gain knowledge they’ll

need on the job, build relationships with other new hires, meet and work with mentors and feel like they

are an important part of a team.

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Program Approach

Sydney Charlie

It’s Sydney’s first day on the job, and she’s ready to make her mark! When she reports to her manager, she discovers that Acme Company offers its one-day orientation the first week of the month. Today is the 10

, so she will have to wait three weeks to take the class. In the meantime, the manager gives her an employee handbook and three large manuals on team processes to read over the next couple of weeks.

Sydney’s zeal just dropped a notch or two.

Charlie’s new hire packet includes instructions on how to access the employee intranet so he can watch a couple of company videos and take a Welcome to Zeta Company elearning course. He also thumbs through the onboarding schedule that explains the three units in his six month transitional training program.

“Wow!” he thinks. “A company that’s willing to invest in training me? This is going to be great!”

If you struggle with how to get new hires oriented to the company, get them productive as quickly as possible and realize profits from your staffing investment, you are not alone! However, taking a “short cut”

approach may be detrimental to both the employee and the company. Here’s why.

Programs like the one Sydney is experiencing can last from a few hours to a couple of days, so new employees can get the information and get to work. However, because of the approach, it doesn't allow for any real-world application of the new information. Companies like Alpha may also wait to hold classes until enough employees have been hired. What are some ramifications of this approach?

 Employees like Sydney may have reduced productivity during the initial waiting period.

 If they are put to work without effectively learning the proper processes, they could make costly errors that can increase liabilities and risk, and affect customer service.

 Employees who wait for orientation and are given “busy work” to fill their time may have fewer positive experiences in their first weeks of employment. They may even become disengaged if they don’t get adequate training or feel initial success.

 Managers become frustrated at the lack of skilled employees to respond to their pressing corporate directives.

Onboarding programs like Charlie’s can begin as soon as the new hire accepts the job and may continue for anywhere from three months to one year. By using this approach, you can provide a scalable method to ramp up employees—during this time, employees engage in small segments of “learn then practice” so they can quickly build their skills and responsibilities while splitting their time between learning and fulfilling their daily responsibilities. What benefits can you realize by using this approach?

 This just-in-time learning reduces managers’ frustration because they can quickly get their employees productive in some areas while continuing to build their skills in other areas.

 When employees can immediately practice what they’ve learned, their confidence grows and they feel less overwhelmed.

Can you relate to Sydney’s situation? Would you like to make the same impression on your employees

that Charlie experienced? Let’s continue with the tale of these two employees and the lessons you can

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Definition of Success

Sydney Charlie

Sydney doesn’t let these manuals discourage her too much. She reads them, takes notes and then re-reads them—all in the first week. Eager for something more, she asks her manager if they can meet to discuss goals she can work toward in her first few months. Her manager explains that she will learn about the performance review process in her orientation, but Acme doesn’t set goals for employees until after their first three months of employment.

Instead, the manager introduces her to Jerry, a team member who can help her get her laptop set up with access to the intranet, and she receives a list of documents to find and read on the team’s Sharepoint site.

Sydney wonders if anyone else heard that bubble burst in her mind.

Charlie completed his first three days of onboarding at Zeta, and now he’s meeting with his supervisor to review what he learned about the company and to meet his team members.

Then they set 90-day goals and interim milestones.

At the end of the meeting, Charlie has a summary with clear expectations, goals and actions he can take each week toward meeting those goals. He is confident that he can achieve these and is more excited than ever to prove his worth.

Would you agree that new employees need to understand what is valued in their company, how decisions are made, how success is defined and how they are to achieve success? If so, when should they learn this?

The 2012 Allied Workforce Mobility study reports that 60% of companies don’t set any milestones or goals for new hires. However, an effective onboarding program should address these topics and allow learners to get a clear vision of their path to success in two ways:

 Definition: During onboarding, employees meet with their supervisors to review key points from the interview process and job description. Together, they define what is expected from the employee and set benchmarks, such as for the first 90 days.

 Alignment: It’s important for everyone to be aligned in their thinking and direction, so the

supervisor and employee should also discuss how the goals and expectations are aligned with

the team, business unit and company.

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Program Format

Sydney Charlie

It’s been three weeks, and Sydney has been struggling to find the information she needs on the team Sharepoint site. The site is just not intuitive, and she feels like a pest when she asks her teammates too many questions.

Today, she is finally taking her orientation class.

So far, an HR representative has explained benefits and the company’s sexual harassment policy. She’s also been told the company’s mission, vision, values and goals for the fiscal year.

It’s 3PM and Sydney is wondering when she will find out where she fits in the scheme of things.

Charlie is well into his onboarding program and is enjoying the wide variety of training he’s

experiencing. Each topic comes just when he seems to need it, and the well organized reference materials and job aids on his team’s intranet site provide him with a wealth of helpful information when he needs the extra support.

He’s especially enjoying the pretesting and post- testing because he can discover what he will be learning and then immediately evaluate how well he understands it. And it’s easy to go back and retake any learning that he didn’t ace the first time.

During the program, Charlie meets with several people on his team for coaching and mentoring.

He’s also completing a case study and will meet with his mentor this afternoon to discuss his solution to the scenario.

New employees like Sydney, who have brief presentation-style instructor-led training, just don’t realize the same benefits as employees like Charlie, who receive a just-in-time, custom, blended, instructionally sound program. The abbreviated programs are often created by teams without experience in adult learning fundamentals, so they may not have instructional integrity and new hires typically do not have the opportunity to build skills needed to do their jobs.

To avoid employee disengagement and frustration, try implementing the following ideas into your new hire program:

 Think outside the instructor-led training box. Sure, ILT is a tried-and-true way to get employees on board, but it’s not always a realistic solution for your budget or for the learners. Instead, develop content in a wide variety of media that you can deliver in any format, anytime, anywhere.

Try offering self study, elearning, case studies, videos, small group activities, coaching, pretests, post-tests and scavenger hunts. Don’t be dependent on costly instructor-led training as the only format.

 Ensure only the appropriate and relevant content is developed and delivered. Information overkill is easy to do in a new hire program, but carefully analyze each topic you want to include and determine if it’s absolutely necessary for employee success in the first six months of employment.

 Chunk information in short, easily digestible components, and follow up with real-world

application. This allows learners to immediately apply what they learn, experience success and get the reinforcement they need before moving forward.

 Devise a training schedule that provides employees with key foundations first and then builds on

those foundations throughout the program. Managers will thank you for providing new hires with

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 Provide online tools that employees can access prior to their first day. These tools can provide information about the organization’s performance, including its history, mission, values, challenges, recent changes and expectations.

 Plan for strategic socialization of employees, making sure they meet the right people at the right time during their development.

 Provide easy-to-use, easy-to-find tools such as job aids so employees can get the help they need when they need it.

 Include mentoring programs, so employees have a trusted advisor to discuss their concerns and get answers to their questions.

Do you see how a more holistic approach to new hire training can build employee skills and confidence while making them productive earlier? Which of the ideas for beefing up your program do you want to try?

Let’s finish the tale with some more tips and insight.

Follow Up

Sydney Charlie

Sydney completed her orientation program a few weeks ago, and she’s doing her best to fulfill her new responsibilities on the job. However, she struggles with some tasks and finds herself making things up as she goes along. She still has unanswered questions that are beginning to affect her productivity and confidence. At this point, she’s not sure what to do.

Should she try again with her manager and see if he can fill in the blanks?

Should she ask her teammates for help again?

Or should she spend some time tonight on the online job boards to find a more promising job opportunity?

Charlie has completed his first major unit of onboarding and is applying his new knowledge. In the last week, he met with his manager to review his progress and his mentor to ask a few more questions.

The Learning & Development team also asked him to participate in a roundtable discussion to see how he liked his onboarding and what suggestions he has for improvement.

Charlie leaves work each day feeling fulfilled and confident. He is proud to represent Zeta Company and knows he’s found a place he’d like to stay for years to come.

Too many times, new hire training is implemented with little or no follow-up by managers, Learning &

Development, Human Resources and other stakeholders. What are the dangers?

 Employee retention of the material they were presented can drop.

 Employee confidence is reduced.

 If they don’t get the follow-up and reinforcement, they can do exactly what Sydney did: make

things up when she didn’t know the answer. Besides the obvious effect on the employees, this

also negatively impacts standards and consistency, and it puts the company at risk.

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By integrating follow-up into the learning process, you can monitor employee progress, identify any misconceptions they may have and quickly put them back on the right path. You can also identify gaps in the training and make adjustments for future new hires.

Final Thoughts

According to the SHRM Presentation by the Wynhurst Group (April 2007), 22% of staff turnover occurs in the first 45 days of employment. The presentation also states that new employees who went through a structured onboarding program were 58% more likely to be with the organization after three years.

Which statistic do you want your organization to reflect?

Here are a couple more statistics:

 On average, companies invest a minimum of $10,000 to hire one employee.

 The cost of losing an employee in his or her first year of employment is estimated to be at least three times his or her salary.

You invest a lot in your employees. You want and need them to be successful. You want and need to prevent turnover. With a relatively small investment in your employee onboarding process, you can dramatically, positively impact your organization through an engaged, productive workforce.

Have thoughts you’d like to share? Feel free to drop us a line and share your struggles or triumphs with your existing program. We’d love to hear from you, and we’d love to include your comments in our published series of this article!

Are you ready for an onboarding overhaul? Michaels & Associates consultants have expertise in creating

instructionally sound, engaging, blended and effective onboarding programs. Contact us and we'll be

glad to get you started. Michaels & Associates – where confidence is contagious.