On Boarding vs. On Boredom: How to Dust Off and Update Your On boarding Processes (Part Two)

Anyway, what kind of impression do you think that first experience left on my brain…forever? Not a good one, for sure. I considered the company disorganized and disheveled, with no clear onboarding plan in place and an IT department with no guidelines, management or even accountability.

Soon after, I opened my own Training and Development company and have been at it ever since.

Remember that first impressions are critical, and as technology grows, so should your onboarding plan. Try to create rich experiences for the new employee, with one-on-one time set aside each day to recap their progress. Prepare a daily schedule and share it with them on the first day. During that one-on-one time, get them excited about their new role; explain their responsibilities; and how they can grow within the company.

Just sitting and watching a team member work or sitting in a team meeting or call is not effective if the team is not explaining a process or summarizing details of a project directly related to their role.

Make sure on Day 1, new staff have all the technology tools they need (computer and phone especially), to begin setting up their profiles and understanding any technology processes they will need to use for their job role. You can offer policies and procedures in a fun, interactive eLearning format, and even have the team put together a welcome video with everyone introducing himself or herself and describing their role on the team, which is much more effective than handing a new employee an org chart.

A blended learning approach breaks up the monotony of the day and offers eLearning for short amounts of time (max. 20 minutes), an offline activity (perhaps a worksheet), time with a mentor to learn more and ask questions, and time to even work on a creative assignment related to their department or a project they will be working on.

The key is to help new staff feel productive, involved and important from day one. I believe, if you can do this, you will have a better chance of retaining that employee for a long time to come.

About the Author

Cheryl Powell, CEO of GC Learning Services LLC dba Learn2Engage, is in her 22^nd year as a Virtual Instructional Design and e-Learning Specialist, with clients all over the US and overseas.

Her industry experience includes Telecommunications, Finance (Mortgage, Banking and Credit industry), Sales, Pharmaceutical, Media, Software Development, and many more. Most of the requested corporate topics revolve around employee development, with topics such as Corporate Compliance, Cultural Diversity, Workplace Ethics, Sexual Harassment and Labor Laws and other HR New Hire topics.

She holds a Bachelor in Business Management, a graduate certification in Project Management, and a Master of Science degree in IT Project Management and has studied the Adult Learning principles of experts and theorists such as Gagne’s (nine events), Maslow’s (hierarchy of needs), and Dr. Ruth Clark, to ensure her courses, presentations, storyboards and modules, engage the learner, utilize the proper balance of white space, text and graphics, and result in high Learner Retention rates.