Prolong Onboarding Coaching: 5 Inventive Methods
Continuous onboarding training for the benefit of your employees and your company
Depending on who you ask (or what Google result you clicked through), there are three to nine phases of employment. In practice, a potential employee shows interest in the position or your company is looking for him. Then interview, recruit and hire them. They need orientation and development training to do their job better. Eventually they will go, but you want to keep them on your payroll as long as possible. You have invested in it and want to take advantage of it. Continuous L&D can help with retention goals, but what exactly should you be doing beyond onboarding training? See how continuous training is the answer.
5 innovative ways to expand onboarding training
1. Hold monthly events
Today’s generation of workers is more independent and self-confident. “Old school” workers were more inclined to obey orders, but the modern employee has questions and wants to hear your arguments. You have more options. So if you don’t please them, they will go. But even if your employees have problems they would like to address, they don’t always know who to turn to. Start a tradition of #AMAs, where someone in management agrees to respond to employee inquiries. It can be a “town hall meeting” in the office’s boardroom. Or it can be a synchronized conference call session. Employees can ask spontaneous questions, but they can also submit them in advance. There should be a moderator, but he should focus on timing, not censorship.
2. Start a reference library
Your organization has a clear vision of what employees should learn. But your employees on site may have different needs. For example, the boss prefers to have everyone memorize the company’s mission and vision. But employees know – especially in the first week – that they were more concerned about pronouncing the boss’s name correctly. Or decipher how to address them. (First name? Last name? Title? Nickname? Vague murmurs without eye contact?) So while supervisors oversee the online training curriculum, you’re creating a crowdsourced JIT library that is populated by employees. You will be better able to identify and provide emergency training aids. And they’re best positioned to get it into a format that is accessible to new hires. Just make sure your LMS or authoring tool is simple enough to be used by non-IT staff. And that it is mobile, both for learners in companies and for developers of online training content.
3. Create individual career trips
Almost every interviewer asks: ‘Where do you see yourself in 5 years?’ Take it out of the summary. Show your new employee possible career paths as part of the onboarding and indicate the job title and qualifications. It is an excellent tool to digitally create and distribute as both the learners in the company and their managers can update it. And it can be upgraded consistently over the years. When they first start their new hire training, they will have an organization chart, but with job descriptions instead of names. So instead of thinking “I want this and the other’s job”, the apprentices in the company can see which positions they are addressing. You can also see what qualifications they need to get there. Include a list of the online training courses they should be taking and the skills they should acquire if they wish to do this position. And every time they move forward (or change their minds and change paths) it is recorded in the employees’ online career table.
4. Long-term gamification
Start a gamification strategy that goes well beyond the onboarding training process. During the training for new employees, employees are introduced to the badges, points and / or leaderboards. Give them an explanation of what it is about, how they are progressing (or earning), and what are the benefits in practice. Over the months and years that they work in your company, they collect points that increase their motivation. This also gives them the opportunity to see how far they have come from the beginning. You can even add an interactive map or game board to visually remind them of what goals they have achieved. Just like the goals that lie ahead of us.
5. Create positions as needed
It is difficult for employees in managerial positions to move around in the corporate sector. Unless they’re poached (or their boss leaves), there isn’t much room for growth. This also happens within organizations – employees could find themselves as VPs for life. This makes them listless and they may just leave your company for a higher position. Diversify to give employees a sense of upward movement at every stage of their career.
Keep track of the educational path they chose to begin with. And if necessary, create new L&D-based job titles for them. Make it meaningful, real, and individual. For example, an accounting intern who loves photography could become the company’s training archivist. S / he continues with his / her financial duties, but the new role allows him / her to use his / her passion to enrich the training experience for others. You can also invite experienced staff to act as mentors and / or peer-based coaches.
graduation
People need to feel that we are making progress in life. When we stagnate, we feel unfulfilled, and our feeling of underperformance can put us back on the job. So, as a company, you want to drive onboarding training and provide consistent support in all phases of the job. Examples? Monthly sessions where anyone – newbies and general practitioners – can ask questions (and be honestly answered). A reference library filled with employees. Career paths created on the first day and meaningfully updated throughout your company. And when there’s no room for upward movement, devise new positions tailored to specific influential learners in the company to keep them happy.
Does your LMS allow you to extend onboarding training to any phase of the employment cycle? Find the best employee training platform for your business by using our online directory. Filter results by feature, pricing model, and deployment type to improve ROI and add overlooked solutions to your list.
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