It will always take some time for a new employee to transition to a fully competent regular worker. But when you make sure he or she is welcomed and has access to various resources, you can get the employee up to speed much more quickly. Furthermore, when you make sure the new hire is comfortable in his or her new role and you’re on hand to answer any questions, you can ensure the employee stays with your company for the long term.
Provide Easy-to-Access Training That They’ll Actually Use
Training is obviously a key part of getting new employees up to speed. But you need to ensure you use the right training methods. Companies can use helpful enterprise LMS (learning management systems) to keep and use all of their training and education courses and documents. But you still need to implement training courses that will actually benefit your new hires.
Classic corporate training programs typically involve long sessions, involving watching videos and reading content, followed by quizzes. The problem is, studies have shown again and again that most people forget the majority of what they have learned within a short amount of time. The antidote is to use microlearning. That involves shorter training sessions paired with opportunities to practice what has been learned. When utilized correctly, microlearning provides a broad range of benefits. For instance, employee onboarding times are reduced, information retention remains high, and employee skills grow more over time.
Provide the Right Resources
In addition to training resources, it’s important every new employee has the right materials that answer any questions they may have. Make sure your new workers have easy-to-digest resources that cover things like company guidelines, contact sheets, and portal details so that they’re not left unsure or clueless about certain things.
Promote HR Programs
You should introduce new employees to your company’s HR programs and tech platforms early on. If your business has an employee reward and recognition program, ensure new workers are aware of it and know how to utilize it. When you use employee recognition programs, employees are able to recognize each other’s hard work, and the programs help new employees to become instantly immersed in your company culture. A recognition program also fosters a positive work environment and boosts employee happiness and productivity.
Make Sure New Employees Aren’t Left Alone in the Early Days
When new employees start work, they’re sure to have a multitude of questions or reach points where they are unsure how to proceed. So, it’s vital that new employees are not left alone too much in the early days. By having a manager or team leader on hand and always visible, new workers will much more easily get to grips with their tasks and duties. Having someone in a senior position always available also communicates to the new employee that he or she is important. When a new employee has no one to turn to and is unsure about how to handle certain tasks, not only can the employee’s productivity suffer. He or she will also feel uncertain about the job position. If a new employee doesn’t get the right support, he or she could leave quickly.
Provide Employees with a Ninety-day Plan
A great way of helping a new employee to transition from the new kid on the block to a regular worker is to give him or her a specific plan for the first ninety days. Break down which areas the employee needs to cover, such as admin, management, and technical areas, and determine how much time the employee should spend on each area each month. With a firm plan in place, new employees will get up to speed much more quickly.
