Training New Employees the Right Way
One of the most important things to remember when training new employees is that everyone learns a little differently! Some learners are visual and need lots of examples or pictures to optimize learning.
Others need to hear information to enhance learning capabilities.
And some learners need a combination of both.
It is important to communicate with your learners and be cognizant of their nonverbal communication so you can ascertain their needs.
It is also important that you convey information in a variety of forms.
My agency used a combination of written information, verbal instructions and information on a smart board.
In order to minimize boredom, we made sure that the training varied regularly between receiving information and giving information.
We also had employees take breaks every 60-90 minutes to they could stretch, get a drink or snack, move around, etc.
My agency had a 7 day comprehensive block training that took place the second week of each month.
This schedule was pretty well set in stone, so hiring supervisors and would know when orientation sessions or specific training sessions were scheduled to take place.
The block training took place 9am-5pm each day.
We had some employees who were college students or had a second job, so we accommodated this by having a block training session every couple of months that encompassed evening and weekend time frames.
The new hire block training with a power point overview from our Executive Director.
He explained the history of the company and where the company was today and headed in the future.
Having our Executive Director provide this first session to employees really provided that buy-in from new employees to the company.
They saw that the leader of the organization was vested in their success and that his door was open anytime if they needed him.
This meant a lot to new employees.
The block training continued with many required trainings each day.
We tried to make this training fun, interactive, interesting and informative.
We also eventually converted our new employee binder to scanned documents on a jump drive.
This saved tons of paper.
We only printed out information that we needed filled out (for example policies and new employee information) or if it was requested by an employee.
The new hire block training ended by having employees meet with their respective supervisor or mentor.
This was a nice segway into the second phase of training or the hands on information the employee would learn.
My agency's Training and Development committee continues to meet and evaluate the effectiveness of each training.
The committee has evaluations for each training and use this feedback to make changes/enhancements to the current trainings.
Others need to hear information to enhance learning capabilities.
And some learners need a combination of both.
It is important to communicate with your learners and be cognizant of their nonverbal communication so you can ascertain their needs.
It is also important that you convey information in a variety of forms.
My agency used a combination of written information, verbal instructions and information on a smart board.
In order to minimize boredom, we made sure that the training varied regularly between receiving information and giving information.
We also had employees take breaks every 60-90 minutes to they could stretch, get a drink or snack, move around, etc.
My agency had a 7 day comprehensive block training that took place the second week of each month.
This schedule was pretty well set in stone, so hiring supervisors and would know when orientation sessions or specific training sessions were scheduled to take place.
The block training took place 9am-5pm each day.
We had some employees who were college students or had a second job, so we accommodated this by having a block training session every couple of months that encompassed evening and weekend time frames.
The new hire block training with a power point overview from our Executive Director.
He explained the history of the company and where the company was today and headed in the future.
Having our Executive Director provide this first session to employees really provided that buy-in from new employees to the company.
They saw that the leader of the organization was vested in their success and that his door was open anytime if they needed him.
This meant a lot to new employees.
The block training continued with many required trainings each day.
We tried to make this training fun, interactive, interesting and informative.
We also eventually converted our new employee binder to scanned documents on a jump drive.
This saved tons of paper.
We only printed out information that we needed filled out (for example policies and new employee information) or if it was requested by an employee.
The new hire block training ended by having employees meet with their respective supervisor or mentor.
This was a nice segway into the second phase of training or the hands on information the employee would learn.
My agency's Training and Development committee continues to meet and evaluate the effectiveness of each training.
The committee has evaluations for each training and use this feedback to make changes/enhancements to the current trainings.
