10 Steps to Train and Educate New Employees
Houston Business Coaching
1. - First provide direct employee training. - “It provides a foundation for knowledge to grow.
The manager (or owner) should then bring in other experts to help train employees. The training experience from experts will be different than (yours), allowing for your employees to learn in different ways. Don’t forget to do a mini-quiz at the end.” - Matt Goulart, Founder of Ignite Digital.
2. - Look to optimize employees’ strengths. - “Start employees out as generalists for an initial training (and trial) period. Then, allow them to quickly grow into more specialized roles… In a small and growing business when every employee must be able to wear many hats, this builds a strong foundation. Every member of the team will be comfortable and competent in all the in’s and out’s of your organization, in addition to their specific areas of focus.” - Elle Kaplan, Founder and CEO of Lexion Capital.
3. - Use an e-learning program to train employees. - “In 2012, we used an e-learning platform to create Blue Corona University and a series of several dozen courses. The subject of each course ranges from general company to role-specific knowledge and general industry insights. The typical course combines videos, multiple choice, fill in the blank, puzzles, games, and essays. Each course is followed by a quiz. Earning certain quiz scores and completing various course sequences earns employees prizes and promotions.” - Ben Landers, President of Blue Corona.
4. - Give new employees a task, in lieu of training. - “Not only will employees learn a lot while they work on the task, you will have something done by the end of it [and] it will help them to make the most of the follow-up training (as they can relate it to their own experience). This works [especially] well in the management of employees who [have] never supervised others before; educating them without previous preparation will be inefficient as they will not understand the practical implications of the training and will forget the new information shortly.” - Przemyslaw Radomski, CEO of Sunshine Profits.
5. - Encourage employees to share their expertise. - “Once a month, VoIP Supply holds MBA Mondays where employees lead a training session to help their peers learn more about their area of expertise, such as HTML, building Excel spreadsheets, or writing a business plan.” - Ben Sayers, CEO of VoIP Supply.
6. - Let employees teach themselves and give guidance along the way. - “I don’t look for people to fill a particular position as much as I look for a person who I believe will bring value by bringing something new to the table. If someone is bright and motivated, then I like to let them think of ways they can contribute and choose one that is not only helpful to the company, but one that they like as well. This way, they pretty much teach themselves what they need to know because they want to learn it, and I can simply guide them on the best way(s) to do so.” - Clayton Cohn, Chairman, President, and CEO of Marketaction, Inc.
7. - Expose employees to activities that will foster personal growth. - “We regularly have group lunches and I even ask my team to go to outside networking events. All of these events are used to help the individual grow into the position instead of having someone simply tell him what to do.” - Richard Horvath, Owner and President of The Design Studio.
8. - Communicate daily. - “For example, my office manager, after meeting with her almost daily for over a year she [has] become fairly autonomous with keeping the management initiatives moving forward in between my weekly meetings with her. She [has] been well trained in the management dynamics and the management objectives of the firm and how to [teach] them, and she’s operating autonomously and bringing about [results from] these objectives.” - Richard P. Console, Jr., Managing Partner of Console & Hollawell, P.C.
9. - Outline processes for new hires. - ” If an employee does something wrong, you have to know it came down to not following process. If they were not given those processes to follow, then the blame lies on you as the employer. ” - Alex Membrillo, Co-Founder and CEO of Cardinal Web Solutions.
10. - Ensure employees fully comprehend the training. - “Most employees will not ask questions during training, so asking questions to make sure they understood will help make sure that the employee does in fact understand the purpose of the training. Questions like ‘please explain to me the purpose of this exercise’ [will help.] The next big tip is repetition. Repeating the process over and over will ensure that the employee knows exactly how you want [the task] to be done. Understanding these two principles will help ensure that your employees are on board when it comes to training them [on] new concepts.” - Thomas Mello, Owner of A1 Garage Door Service.
Source: YFS Magazine
Patty Block, President and Founder of The Block Group, established her company to advocate for women-owned businesses, helping them position their companies for strategic growth. Charting the course for impactful, sustainable, profitable businesses, the beacon is control: of your strategic direction, your money, your time, your staffing, and your ability to bring in business. The Block Group brings together the people, resources and ideas that build results.
Houston Business Coaching.
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