When your business begins to grow, you also have to get more employees. The new workers need some time to learn your business processes before they begin contributing towards your business’ success. This is why you must understand the best practices for training a new employee on your company values, goals, and mission.
An effective training program lessens the time they have to spend before they begin making a useful impact on your business. The effectiveness of your training program will determine your employee retention rate.
Here’s a guide on how to effectively train a new employee.
Why Is New Hire Training Important?
Training has significant benefits for your business and employees. About 76% of workers consider on-the-job training the most important activity during the first week on the job. Training prepares them to do the job effectively and efficiently as soon as possible.
Here are other benefits of having a robust training program for new hires.
Prepares One For The New Job
Training allows new hires to do the job properly to meet the expectations of the new organization. New hires usually bring expertise, but training makes them fit your business culture. You may have specific ways you want things to be done. Training will make the new hire perform to your expectation.
Ensures A Strong Head Start
Training plans for new employees prevent misunderstandings or limit new workers from having a sluggish start. It helps your company enjoy the benefits of filling the vacant position as soon as possible.
Makes New Hires Feel Welcome
A new hire training program is essential in making new team members feel welcome. The program allows them to understand your mission, vision, and goals. It also allows them to understand the job’s perks and where to seek support within the company where necessary.
Builds Confidence
Training makes new workers gain confidence in joining your business. This is because training gives them the ideas, tools, and skills to fill the vacant position. Building confidence makes the new team members successfully join the organization and become productive in contributing towards its growth.
Lowers Staff Turnover
Workers who feel welcome in a new company and have access to the right tools are more likely to stick around. One of the commonest reasons employees don’t stay long in an organization is feeling overwhelmed and having inadequate preparation. New hires who don’t get training are more likely to feel frustrated after joining the company and will likely leave shortly.
Understanding Technology In Your Business
Technology, such as field management software, is essential for the success of any field service business. A training program for new hires allows them to understand the technology used in your business. It allows them to understand the overall work process to make them perform their duties smoothly.
A training program for new hires ensures that every team member gets a clear picture of what to expect and procedures. This allows them to perform their duties with less supervision and guidance. Doing their work independently allows the manager to focus on other essential tasks.
How To Train A New Employee?
After realizing the benefits of having a training program for new hires in your business, you must know how to train your new employees. New employee training is essential for the hiring process, teaching them how to succeed in their new roles.
The new employee training period may last up to 90 days, depending on your desired outcomes. When you get new talent to fill vacant positions in your company, here are considerations to implement an effective training program for new hires.
Create New Hire Training Program
Failing to formally train new hires in your business is a grave mistake. It’s wrong to believe that new employees will learn on the job. Understanding how to create a new hire training program is essential in making your employees happier and improving staff retention rates.
A well-structured new hire training program makes about 91% of workers stay on the job for at least a year. An effective new hire training program is essential for business management to help new workers settle into the rhythm of your business.
New employee orientation best practices include:
Establish New Employee Procedures
You must know the way forward before establishing a new hire training program. It’s time to establish what your business expects from each employee. Establishing new employee procedures articulates what, why, and when to train new hires effectively.
The five steps to doing this include:
- Identification of tasks information, and procedures new hires must know
- Knowing the best person to manage the training
- Allocating appropriate resources for the program
- Completing the training
- Checking for understanding of the training
Creating A New Hire Training Checklist
It’s essential to understand the position of each employee in the onboarding process. The checklist outlines how to treat any new employee, and it includes the following:
- Welcome email
- Creating space for them in the office
- Access to appropriate tools and company uniform
- Pairing with a mentor
- Personalized training plan
- Identifying priority training requirements
- Check-in meetings
Training Your Company Culture
All your new hires must understand your organization’s culture. Highlight aspects of your culture and how employees must reflect on it while performing their daily tasks. You must also demonstrate essential customer service and problem-solving skills to all new workers. Sharing your company culture is essential to your new hire training program.
Also Read: Hiring And Recruiting Tips To Attract Employees That Stick Around
Support Your New Employee
After completing training, you must support your new employee to fit into the company. Making a new hire is very exciting, but you must make the employee feel welcome in your organization. Ignoring this may make you lose the new hire even before completing the onboarding process.
Support tips for training new employees include:
Offering A Welcome Package
You must have a ritual including a welcome package for all new hires. It may be a document highlighting company values, goals, and procedures. The welcome package shows new workers that you care about them.
Provide Perspective
All new hires need a clear understanding of their place in the new organization. Ensure to give new employees a 360-degree perspective of your business, including socialization with the company’s values.
Another way to make them feel welcome is by introducing them to your customers and internal partners.
Help Them Connect
It takes a lot to welcome a new employee in your business apart from allocating office space. You must build a sense of belonging from the first moment. Encourage everyone to come and say hello to the new hire. Encouraging building relationships is an essential ingredient for the success of the new hire.
Provide A 90-Day Plan
Another fantastic idea to support a new hire is to give them a plan for their first 90 days in your company. The plan must focus on what the employee must do regarding building internal relationships, business development, and professional development.
It must highlight how much time spent doing certain things will help a new worker transition smoothly from being the new kid on the block to a regular employee.
Hold Introductory Meetings
You must consider holding meetings for new hires to introduce themselves and their roles. The goal of the meeting is to highlight the importance of everyone on the team. Encourage everyone to reach out to others on the team for support and guidance. Teamwork and strong communication encourage success for everyone.
Assign A Peer Mentor
A wonderful way to give new employees a quick and solid start in your company is to assign them a peer mentor. Your new hires will appreciate having a special someone they can confide in and who makes them feel important.
Peer mentors offer valuable insight into your business culture and help a new hire transition faster and successfully.
Determine Realizable Goals For A New Hire
How you set goals for new hires, and the current staff is different. Realizable goals keep employees on track and happy in the workplace. Goals are essential, especially when handling a new kid on the block in your business.
Setting your new hire realizable goals teaches them what’s important in your business. The employee will clearly understand timelines while handling work at clients’ locations as part of your company culture.
New hires need feedback to help them to understand whether they are on track. Goals and regular feedback about how they are performing towards achieving them eliminate self-doubt when people start new roles.
Making realizable goals for your new hire requires using the SMART framework, which requires all goals to be:
- Specific to your business needs
- Measurable, which requires being quantitative
- Attainable where goals are within reach
- Relevant to your business goals
- Timely with deadlines for urgent tasks
Setting realizable goals make a new hire feel comfortable in their new position. It gives them an understanding of what you expect from them. You must establish the employee’s skills and experience to set realistic goals they can accomplish immediately after joining your company.
Give Regular Feedback
Soliciting feedback ensures that your investment in a new hire is paying off. Feedback boosts new employee proficiency and limits the chances of new hire failure. It lowers turnover and boosts retention rates.
A great experience allows new hires to be more successful and increases their chances of staying longer in your company.
The benefits of regular feedback include the following:
Makes A New Hire Feel Valued
Employees want to feel valued in the workplace. Regular feedback is an investment that communicates their performance so far. It portrays their worth in the company. Your new hire will feel valued when you celebrate their accomplishments.
Creates An Open And Honest Culture
Encouraging regular feedback from new hires creates an open and honest culture. The employee will feel that the management and colleagues are honest with them. They are more likely to respond in the same way to promote a transparent atmosphere in your workplace.
Accelerates Productivity
The new employee’s desire to develop in a new company lies within themselves regardless of the support available. An employee’s desire to progress requires understanding what they are doing and how they can improve. Praising them for their effort and availing them with the information they need to progress will accelerate their productivity.
The best practices for delivering new employee feedback include the following:
- Improving the onboarding process
- Getting the timing right
- Offering positive and constructive comments
- Sharpening communication
- Making feedback a two-way process
Regular feedback allows the manager to understand the challenges the new hire may be facing and to adjust the training plan accordingly. It also ensures that the employee is doing their job appropriately and is on track to meet your business goals.
Create an Individualized Training Plan For A New Employee
There’s no ballpark training solution for new hires. Every employee has weaknesses and strengths and requires a personalized training approach. Implementing an individualized training plan for your new employee requires understanding their training needs.
The benefits of implementing personalized training for a new hire include:
- Saving your business money in the long run
- Acknowledge gaps in knowledge
- Caters to different learning styles
- Lessens employee turnover
Provide All Training Materials
The last step to training new employees is offering them all the necessary training materials. You must have a reliable place where new hires can access onboarding videos, manuals, articles, webinars, and answers to all questions they may have.
Other components of your training materials may include:
- Policies and general procedures
- Business management software
- Workplace culture
- Laws and compliance guidelines
Final Thoughts
Training a new employee in your field service business is essential. It ensures that the new hire understands the company culture and what you expect from them. However, you must tailor the training to each employee’s skill set and experience for better results.
Building a solid team is essential for your business’s success. After you’ve provided training to new employees, you also need field service management software such as Field Complete. This streamlines dispatching, scheduling, reporting, communication, and invoicing processes.
