Supporting the New Employee with the Proper Training Part 5 in our series“Building a Successful Business One Employee at a Time.” Attracting Quality Candidates, Conducting the Successful Interview, Matching the Right Person to the Right Job, and Orienting the New Hire Into Your Firm can be reviewed in issues 3, 4, 5, and 6 of our newsletter.
Now that the new employee understands your organization and what is expected of him or her through a good orientation process, the next step is to assure their long-term success with the firm. The best way to do this is to make certain they have what is needed to handle the work in a manner suitable to the firm. Often managers feel that the new hire has the experience to do the job without needing further training. This leads to the frustration of the new employee and an upset manager when things are not done as they should be.
Early in the recruiting process it is usually decided whether the organization wants to hire people with experience or to hire people with little, if any, experience and then train them to meet the organization’s expectations. However, it really does not matter as every new employee should receive training regardless of his or her work history and this is why.
Even though you may be identifying a particular job with the same title as everyone else in your profession it is unique due to the fact your firm is unique. Thus, in order to assure the success of every employee they need training whether they are new to the workforce or have been doing the same job for 20 years somewhere else.
A veteran employee likely has ‘habits’ or ways of doing things they bring with them from their former employer. When a person does a job a certain way over a period of time it is difficult for them to change, but training can help. In many training circles it is often said that you have to break employees of their ‘bad habits’ before you can teach them your ‘good habits’.
The inexperienced person needs training to get them up to speed and to help them understand what is expected of them in the role. Every new employee should be trained in the ways of your organization so everyone has an equal chance of being successful. The question is “how to do we go about that?”
The first thing to remember is to never let a departing employee train their replacement. For reasons known only to them, they may fail to provide instruction on all aspects of the job. Later, after the departing employee has left, it can come back to haunt you when the new employee lets part of the job go undone. Here is a much better method.
Select a person in each area of your organization to be the ‘trainer’ of new employees for that area. This person should be very good at the job and have a good ability to communicate.
This sets a very high standard for incoming employees and, if there is a problem with the employee, you can ask the person who did the training to do some additional work to help get the improvement needed.
If you do not have one outstanding person, assign portions of the job to each of the new employee’s fellow workers so they can act as the trainer on that part. This team training method creates two outcomes. One; the new employees gets a well-rounded education and two; it makes the team responsible for the success or failure of new hires in their area.
All employees deserve a chance at success when they assume a new job. The best way to assure that happens is to match the person’s interests with the job in the beginning. Then, make certain they understand the organization and its idiosyncrasies during the orientation. Finally, provide the best training on your equipment and processes that you can. By doing these things well, you raise the bar for your organization and become a strong, successful firm.
