HR

Making Better Use of Training Resources and What to Include

By Sean Gordon

Trainers can look on YouTube for an overview of almost any topic and create a Microsoft Word or PowerPoint document with supporting training resources. The process takes a couple hours. What trainers haven’t told you lately is that they aren’t happy with their current learning management system (LMS), mostly because it is lackluster and outdated.

The Background

According to Forbes.com’s Josh Bersin, “in Deloitte’s most recent research among 700-plus business and HR professionals, corporate L&D received a net-promoter score of -8. This is about as low as it can go.” You wouldn’t want to work in a field like ours if this was your confidence rating. In this post, we explain what to include in new hire training whether your trainers are internal or external professionals. The goal of training is to help employees start off the right way with information essential to their jobs:

Be sure to include these topics to get employees started in their new position:

Policies and Procedures

Bersin also noted corporate trainers thought their companies could do well with their present LMS in terms of compliance information. When you want to write material for training new employees on this topic, there’s probably plenty of training recourses in the LMS. We wonder if these policies and procedures have been updated much, however.

Customer Service Model

Most organizations have a service philosophy that helped them reach their present market position. While not all companies relate every job to service delivery, they expect employees to know the basics. This is a good time to present an overview of the company, including its history, and to describe the products or services it offers in each market. For example, janitorial staff working in a large building should know where to direct customers to restrooms and major departments. Telephone representatives should know how to direct incoming calls and when to escalate upset customers to their supervisor.

Rights and Benefits

Tell employees the kinds of programs they can join. A new hire training program should make it easy for them to make benefits elections and to compare between two or more options for one type of benefit. They should ask questions and be encouraged to discuss these options with their dependents. This portion includes how they can get access to extra coaching if they struggle on the job and how they can make a complaint if they get mistreated by a boss or a co-worker. Employers may also provide workers’ compensation and employee assistance program benefits.

Safety

Employees need direct instruction on performing safely and responding to emergency situations, including using hazardous materials and building evacuations. If employees must wear protective equipment, it should be given to them at training.

Using Technology

Most employers have an agreement governing how employees use their company’s electronic resources while on their computer or mobile device. These may be different when an employee uses company equipment than when he brings his own device to work.

Location of Information Training Resources

While an employer may have training materials and shared resources on its LMS, there is other information on training resources including electronic databases and print materials that employees use. These are relevant in general training programs for new employees only if multiple workers will access them.

Evaluations

If you use a common system for evaluating performance, this would be easy to explain through concrete examples in new employee training. However, if managers and specialists use a different system for evaluation, they will require additional training. The best evaluation models set employees up with appropriate expectations on their first day.

Reporting

A company may hire hourly and salary workers, but it will be responsible for tracking all hours worked. Otherwise, its employees cannot accurately report their income to the Internal Revenue Service. Timekeeping records also affect each worker’s benefits, performance evaluation, eligibility for promotion, and other working conditions. It’s a general principle that employees get compensation for completing a new hire training program, but this varies from organization to organization.

We strongly believe that companies of every size get better results from training with help from HR experts. The current workplace calls for flexible design and access to more kinds of digital and mobile training resources. For more details on improving your organization’s LMS and helping employees be productive, please contact us for details.

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