Employee Onboarding & Integration

Onboarding & Retaining Confident Employees

Employee onboarding is the first impression a new employee has of your organization, and the experience can either make or break the success of that employee in their new role. With the cost of replacing employees being so high, it's imperative that new hires are set up to succeed. New hire orientation plays a pivotal role.

Two key elements of a successful onboarding program are:

1. New hire training should build your employees' confidence that they can be successful from day one. One way to do this is to communicate that they are valued by the company. We call this “engaging their head and heart.” Your employees must believe the training has value, for them and for the company.

2. New hires need to know they are going to be supported as they learn their new job. When developing an onboarding program, think about what that new team member is thinking and feeling. Then provide a framework that includes both people and information, to allay the new hire's fears, help them acquire the skills and knowledge they need to succeed, and give them confidence to ask questions.

The result: maximum retention of your most valuable assets.

What Does Employee Onboarding Look Like?

Effective new employee training shouldn't be a huge information dump built from an onboarding checklist. Instead, an effective new hire training program should:

Outline a training roadmap employees can follow to ensure they're getting the information they need
Lay down a solid foundation of skills training required to do the job correctly
Define performance measures for which the employee will be accountable

On the journey, employees should be able to monitor their progress on their road to proficiency and see the overall progression of their learning.

Ideally, the roadmap would begin with need-to-know information, layering in intermediate to advanced content over time. In addition, new hire orientation is the time to “teach your learners to fish.” Training is not a one-and-done event. By providing additional or supplemental content as performance support, you can ensure employees have the answers to their questions in the moment of need when they’re on the job. New hire orientation is great time to introduce these tools and how to use them, thus teaching them to fish, and providing the pole.

New Hire Training and Onboarding Best Practices

The following are suggestions on implementing best practices into your new hire training program.

Training should be rooted in processes, competencies, and key performances indicators.
Extend the training program so that it happens over time, rather than all at once, or “training by fire hose.”
Take a whole-person approach by answering, “What’s in it for me?” and “What do I contribute?” immediately.
Include ready reference support material for the moment of need.
Use the right learning mode to produce to the desired outcome:
- Video, eLearning, and reading components for lecture-based content
- Instructor-led training for practice, coaching, and feedback
- On-the job coaching for successful transition from training to "the real world."
- A microlearning scenario-based approach, providing safe environments for practicing activities.

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