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Welcome to episode 12 of Claire Shares. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m going to be sharing with you high energy, bite size videos, about all things talent attraction, talent acquisition and talent retention. Make sure you’re subscribed to Claire Shares wherever you get your podcasts! Today’s talent retention topic is about training and learning opportunities for your employees. Investing in your employees is an investment back into the business, And I’m excited to share some ways you can get started with improving employee training and learning at your organization. Today is our last episode in season 1 of Claire Shares. I can’t wait to share with you what I have in store for our next series of talent topics.
Before we get started with today’s talent topic, I want to share with you my recommendation of the week!
Recommendation of the week
As we wrap up this first season of Claire Shares here, I’m recommending my network get more familiar with Lighthouse Technology Services! We are a recruiting and managed services firm focused on serving and supporting the Buffalo, NY community. When you need a technologist or other skilled professional for your team, we’ve got the staffing and recruiting capabilities to make it happen. I lead our Managed Talent Services practice. Finally make talent retention and talent attraction easy for your company. You can find and keep the best people for your team through our amazing bundle of services.
Next, our Managed Technology Services team is the most fun team in town. No IT pros on staff? We can monitor and manage your entire IT environment for you and provide tools and technology to take your business to the next level. Searching for additional help or more time in the day for your existing IT Staff? We’re a great partner to your IT team. Have an IT project in mind like a server install or cloud computing migration? We are ready to assist!
Reach out to me if you’d like to discuss any of these areas further. I’m here to help. I love to curate resources and share recommendations, so please reach out to me if there’s something you’re looking for!
Let’s get into our talent topic of the day, training and learning opportunities.
Let’s start with new hire training
I want to start with new hire training, and then I’ll move into training and learning opportunities for existing employees as well. New hire training is often overlooked as an opportunity to create brand stickiness between the new employee and your company. Very few organizations I’ve worked with have no new hire training plan at all, which is great. However, I mainly see new hire training in many small to mid-sized organizations I’ve worked with as a running list of boxes to check relating to compliance activities. Most organizations know the importance of giving the new hire information on compliance, regulations, safety and other crucial aspects they need to follow within their roles to keep themselves and the company safe. Which of course is a great thing, and I love to see that this is already in place.
What I mainly want to talk to you about today is that next level of new hire training. Incorporating what makes your organization unique and special, and ensuring your new employee feels that connection to the organization that keeps them from looking elsewhere.Start with mapping out your new hire training if you haven’t in the past. From the day the person starts, maybe out to day 30 or 90 depending on the role and its complexities. What are the key items your new hire needs to know and when. Think about the people, process and technology involved in each step of the way. This is a huge team effort between HR, managers and potentially peers to help get this new team member up and running. We’ll want to consider all those folks involved roles and work schedules. Sometimes putting together a new hire training plan can be quite the puzzle, which makes the process discouraging or makes us want to give up early, combine things or cut corners.
I assure you taking the extra time to invest in this new hire and making them feel special and like a priority is well worth it. When it comes to new hire training, you can’t have the mindset of “ugh, training someone new means pulling someone else off the line in order to train that person.” If you think this way, you’re already not setting up your new hire for success. The team member responsible for providing that training then doesn’t see it as a value add or good use of their time either, which can decrease the quality of the training and the way it’s delivered. Think from the perspective of, we want this person to work out, we want to help them, we want them to stay. You just spent all this time, effort, and likely money during the recruiting process to get this person to start. You don’t want to deal with the revolving door of folks leaving and then having to welcome someone new and do it all over again. Investing in the training plan up front is well worth it. You’ll see a difference in the new hire’s attitude and engagement on the job. Increased ability for the new hire to hit the ground running and time savings later on from correcting issues because the new hire already had the information they needed.
Map out a training plan
Let’s get into more about mapping out that training plan for a new hire and creating that brand stickiness. Training should be rooted in your mission, vision and values, that we discussed in episode 1. Just doing basic training on safety and operating the line for example, doesn’t make this job any more appealing to stay at than another company.
Again, of course we want to consider and include those crucial aspects like compliance and safety. Then, provide training on the company history, values, and what the values look like in action. Double down on attendance, performance and behavior expectations. You’ll likely provide training, either from your organization or your healthcare provider or broker, on how to utilize the company benefits. Most health insurance plans have perks for employees who complete their annual physical, get a flu shot, and things like that. Provide training on how they can best take advantage of what you offer, so they’re in turn taking care of themselves as well.
Remember even “little things” are training. Have someone show them how to use the funky coffee maker or microwave, or how their key fob works. I remember starting at Lighthouse and having no idea how to work our Ninja coffee maker. I felt kind of silly standing there and eventually had to ask someone for help. Not knowing some of these little things can make someone uncomfortable and they may be afraid to ask, therefore avoiding something altogether. Be proactive and show your new teammate that you thought of everything you possibly could to make them comfortable and help them understand how the environment works. This creates that stickiness and connection for your new team member with the organization.
They are much more likely to come to you with feedback, suggestions and issues because you spent the time building rapport with them throughout the training period. They can SEE that you care, so they’ll assume you would care if they brought forth additional questions or concerns. Be sure to think about timelines when mapping out your new hire training. What must be completed first before they can do something else. Such as completing safety training before further on the job training. And consider the length that certain topics will take, who will do those topics, and what their schedules are.
Consider the way training is being delivered as well. Usually a good mix is a great way to account for different learning styles. Such as have some of the training be watching videos self-paced, shadowing someone, or training hands on with supervision.
Learning and training opportunities for existing team members
On an ongoing basis, you’ll want to revisit topics such as safety, teamwork, process remainders, equipment maintenance reminders or schedules and so on. Repetition is good. Plus, business and the way we do things is evolving every day. Having scheduled time for training on an ongoing basis ensures you have time ear marked to share any changes. And if there hasn’t been changes, great, then reminders are helpful too.
Sometimes it’s easy when things are going well or work is repetitive to start to slack or change processes because we are bored. Keeping folks engaged with ongoing training helps them stay connected to the work in the right ways, and helps the organization reset or remind on expectations. As things change in the business, depending on what it is, you may not just want to send an email communication and leave it at that. You may want to offer, say, 3 training date/time options and have everyone in the company pick 1 to attend to ensure they get the info that needs to be implemented on the job. We cannot assume people know what they should be doing, especially with work consistently evolving due to changing technology, regulations and so on, even if they’ve been there a long time.
Processes change and evolve, and it’s good to keep peoples’ skills fresh. People like ongoing training on changes as it creates that sense of safety and security in their role. And people like to learn new techniques, skills, and new information about the industry where they can use those insights in their work.
Program examples such as leadership development and management fundamentals
My last topic for today is going to be training and learning programs, such as leadership development, management fundamentals, and other learning programs.
I want to give a shoutout to Hannah Buffa at BRG, who implemented a leadership training program in her organization. She posted about their emotional intelligence session on LinkedIn as a post if you want to go check that out. I love that Hannah is getting other team members involved in presenting the various topics throughout the program. I also want to shoutout Collin Gehl at Say Yes Buffalo, who created a leadership development program that won SHRM’s Better Workplace Challenge Cup last year. I was grateful he asked me to do one of the program’s sessions on personal branding and using LinkedIn for personal and professional growth. How cool that he saw the importance of this topic and wanted to be proactive in training employees in those best practices.
Leadership training programs, or leadership development programs are great opportunities for your high performing employees who you can see have long term potential and runway to be leaders in the organization. Common topic ideas include emotional intelligence, influence, negotiation, public speaking, conflict resolution, giving tough feedback, marketing and personal branding, and other financial or business skills to get folks more comfortable with reading financial statements or learning how areas of the business all work together.
Another idea for a training program is management fundamentals. An HR connection of mine Nikki Mazzarella, HR Manager at Teds Hot Dogs has an awesome management fundamentals program, as many managers and store managers at Teds are promoted from within the organization. I’m sure we’ve all heard stories from people who were promoted into management roles, where they had to manage other people, and received minimal training and had no idea what to expect. They had to figure out a ton of it along the way on their own. How cool that Nikki ensures if folks are getting moved into those management roles that the company knows they have the potential, the individual wants the role, and the organization provides the training and learning needed for them to do well! Management fundamentals programs are great for folks who get promoted into a manager role, or as something provided on an ongoing basis for existing managers. Sample topics include performance management, expectation setting, team building, and giving 1 on 1 feedback. All topics we’ve covered on previous episodes of Claire Shares! Remember your managers have a huge impact on the day-to-day engagement and retention if your staff.
Offering external learning and training opportunities
You also want to keep your high potential employees engaged and offering additional learning and training opportunities is a great way to do that. When you invest in your people, they can invest back into the organization because they have a new outlook, new knowledge or new tools they didn’t have before. If you can’t offer training or learning opportunities internally, that is totally okay! Not all of us have the structure, internal knowledge or budget to do that. Consider professional development stipends for certifications and training courses, or have certain members of the team, such as managers of departments, join an industry networking group such as BNMA or BNSME so they can get helpful information from sources outside the organization. Then they can report back to their team at the company and discuss their new knowledge and if anything should be changed or implemented. Supporting employees as they pursue formal education may benefit the organization as well.
Wrap-up
Make having a training and learning mindset ongoing and a part of the company culture. Encourage folks to come forward with new feedback and new ideas. This may inform a process change that makes things better for everyone on the team, and then you can train everyone on the team accordingly. Getting that person who made the suggestion involved with creating or presenting the training is a great opportunity for them as well to learn and grow. As long as it’s not presented in a punitive way. Like saying well since you brought forward that idea, you’re going to be the one who has to implement it. This may prevent people from bringing ideas forward in the future. This week, think about training and learning in your organization and where it could be implemented or strengthened to engage and retain your employees.
Thank you for being here with me and joining me for these bite size videos all about all things talent attraction, talent acquisition and talent retention. These areas of HR and People Ops are my favorite and specialty, and I’m so excited to dive in with you. This work is what I do, if you need help with the tools, technology and process around how you attract, acquire and retain talent, reach out to me and let’s talk!
Claire is Coaching 