Home » Employee Training » Your New Employee Training Checklist to Drive Business Success
Training is often the first thing your employees experience when they start at your company. Any failures in the training will lead to failures in your employees. They may not know the right procedures, they may not properly understand your brand’s identity or values, or they may not have the proper motivation to help the company grow.
Creating the right new employee training checklist will help you put the right training program together. Here’s what should be on your training checklist for new employees:
Goals for the Training – Both for Individual Sessions and the Entire Program
How do you know that your training is effective if you don’t have defined goals for it? How do you know what materials to create if you don’t have a goal for the program?
Your new employee training checklist should include not only goals for the entirety of your training program, but also for each session. You should have a goal for each hour, each day, and each week of your training program.
For example, your goal for the hour may be to complete the practice exercise that introduces employees to the proprietary software you use for your production line. But your goal for the day may be to review the process for producing a specific part used in one of your flagship product.
Your goals for the whole program should be bigger and more specific than “teach employees how to use the equipment” or “to do the job.” Of course, those are going to be goals for training. However, your goals should also be to help employees understand the company culture and brand identity, to motivate and inspire them to bring new ideas to the table, and to set the stage for what’s to come in their future on the job.
By keeping your short- and long-term goals in mind, you will create more targeted training materials that will be more effective. You’ll save time and money, and you’ll get the results you want.
A Clear Timeline for Implementing and Completing Training
You might be surprised to know how many companies don’t actually create a timeline for their new employee training. They might have a general sense, such as “done by the first day” or “within the first couple of weeks.” But few actually have a concrete timeline of events.
Your new employee training checklist must include a detailed and concrete timeline. It should have an overall time frame allotted, and it should have each day and each hour broken down by activity. You should be able to look at the schedule and know exactly what your employees are doing at any specific time during their training.
Don’t forget to leave some time in the training schedule for hands-on practice. This period would come after the formal training but before employees are expected to begin their work in earnest. It gives them time to put their training into practice without too much pressure (and without consequences to them or to your operations).
Easy Access to the Training Technology and Materials
Not all employees are going to be able to complete the training in your main office or another location you have designated for training. Many will be able to make it happen because it’s required, but it will cause them great hardship and won’t set the best tone for their start with your company.
As part of your new employee training checklist, you should be sure that your training program is available online or through a company server so that all employees can access it wherever they are. You should make sure that any training materials are also freely available, both during the training and after (for reference).
Ideally, your training program would be in the cloud and new employees could access it from any device so long as it has an Internet connection. However, you should be prepared to offer loaner laptops or other devices for those employees who don’t have their own devices and who cannot complete the training in person at the office.
The easier you make it for employees to complete their training, the faster they will get it done and the better they will feel about their start with your company.
Clear Sense of Brand Identity
If you don’t know your brand identity inside and out, how can you create effective training materials? How can you shape employees when you don’t know what kind of values or identity you want them to present to your customers?
You should already have a clear sense of brand identity if you want to run your business successfully. But if you don’t, you need one now for your new employee training checklist.
You should present your brand identity to your new employees as part of their training, and every time you go over some new part of the training, you should explain how it reflects or reinforces your brand identity.
In keeping your focus on your brand identity, you will ensure that your training is helping you meet your long-term goals and that your employees are presenting a consistent image to your customers.
Defined Job Responsibilities For All Roles in Your Company
Employees have a general sense of what their jobs will be when they get hired, but many are surprised to learn that they are responsible for certain domains they did not expect to be responsible for. You shouldn’t have these kinds of surprises if you are providing the right training and are communicating clearly.
The new employee training checklist is going to be woefully misguided if you and your employees don’t even know their responsibilities. How can you train them if you don’t know everything that they are expected to do, in detail?
Present a list of detailed job duties to each new hire, and then create a training program around those duties.
A Contact Person for Support During and After the Training
Questions will arise during the training, and employees will continue to have questions and need support long after their training is over. You should identify and appoint a contact person for continued support when you are creating your new employee training checklist.
You may even want to designate multiple people as contacts for support. For example, you may want to team employees up with their own buddies or mentors. Then they can check in with each other when they need help.
Be sure to reward and recognize the people who act as supports or mentors. Even if you aren’t giving them a title or a pay bump, you should show your appreciation and recognize them for a job well done.
