Recruiting, hiring and training employees takes time and money. To increase the likelihood that your New Hires will become excellent team members AND remain with your company long-term, it’s important to take training seriously. As you know, training new employees takes time, patience and good communication skills. And, your business’ success will depend largely on the people you hire and how well you train them. Your New Hires, your current team, and your business will all benefit if you follow these 5 tips for training new employees.

 

 

 

The most important thing to start with is a training checklist. This will help you prioritize tasks based on importance as well as ensure that you provide consistent training. Break it down into sections based on both areas of knowledge and based on the order in which they should be trained. This will help keep the training on track, help the New Hires see what they have to look forward to, and will document the process. 

 

When creating the checklist, determine if you have any video or written materials that will help provide training. For example, if you have a point of sale system, there may be videos that will help New Hires learn the system. People learn in various ways so it is beneficial to provide a combination of verbal, video and written training.

 

I own a print shop and paper craft store. At my business, I have the list broken down into nine sections: Basics, Basic Cashiering, Advanced Cashiering, Phone, Merchandising, Customer Requests, Housekeeping, Business Services and Printing. In the Basics section, I even include a couple of my pet peeves. For example, when a customer says “thank you” I never what to hear the casual “no problem” as a reply. Instead, I insist on “you’re welcome” or “my pleasure.” It’s important to establish these type of expectations early in the training and include them on your training checklist. You want to focus both on tasks AND culture.

 

You may have an overall checklist for training that everyone needs as well as separate lists based on the various positions in your organization. I have a small business so we utilize one checklist. Some sections are not covered based on the New Hire’s position but are left on the form so we can at least explain that we offer those particular services and to discuss who to refer customers to.

 

 

 

Do not overwhelm New Hires by trying to teach them everything there is to know in a few hours or even a few days. Training too fast will waste your time and not be effective. Keep in mind that most peoples’ attention spans are not that great and if overloaded with information they’re unlikely to retain the information presented. By developing and utilizing the training checklist, it will help you stay on track and provide training in manageable doses. Each New Hire will learn at a different pace so treat each person as an individual and don’t expect everyone to learn similarly. 

 

 

 

A great way to get New Hires to get to know other team members AND for the team members to feel valuable is to get team members involved in the training. If someone on your team is particularly good at something, then assign that part of the training to that team member. If you assign the training to various people, make sure New Hires know to ask you or their supervisor if they receive conflicting information. Sometimes information may be misunderstood or clarification is necessary. Make sure anyone helping with training is patient and clear. Nothing will frustrate a New Hire faster than someone who talks too fast or uses unfamiliar jargon, for example.

 

 

 

Often the best way to learn is when you need to learn. In other words, if something needs to be done that the employee hasn’t learned yet, this can be a great opportunity to teach the New Hire that particular skill. It’s much easier to learn by doing than by listening. Anytime you can train a person then assign them a task that allows them to use what they’ve learned, it not only reinforces that they’ve learned but it helps ensure that they understand the training and that the training was adequate.

 

 

 

Even if you’re not the one doing the training make sure to check in with your New Hires periodically. Ask how things are going. Ask if they have any suggestions regarding their training or the company in general. Often a New HIre will have a fresh perspective or previous experiences that will help your business. Be open to listening to ideas. 

 

 

 

Starting a new job is stressful.  New Hires are almost always nervous. Even if your New Hires have previous experience in a company similar to yours, they need to learn your culture, your priorities, your systems. The more effort and time you put into the training process, the better the results and the better the New Hires will feel about their employment. You’ll do your business AND the New Hires a disservice if you don’t invest time and resources into training. 

 

One of the first things I ask New Hires is to be patient as we train them. I explain that just because they need to be trained, doesn’t mean that our workload decreases. We need to continue to assist customers and complete our work. I let them know that even if they’re just observing others working that they’re learning which is important. 

 

I hope these 5 tips for training new employees is useful. If you have any input or questions, please leave a comment below.