Maximize New Hire Experience and Training ROI
How can companies make the new hire onboarding experience productive, memorable and motivating? Here are five areas we have improved on at Motion to make our onboarding experience better than ever.
Individual Training Plans
Everyone comes to Motion with a different background and experience. Some come from other industries and know little about the IT space, some come to us right out of college, and some are industry veterans who just need to learn "The Motion Way". Regardless of background, each needs a tailored training plan that addresses where they are coming from and where we want them to be in order to start producing while working closely with managers and getting their sign-off at each stage.
This training can be done in person if practical, or totally remote using the right interactive training tools that allow us to work with new hires in their environment on their desktop. While we have a standard template for onboarding, we know a "one size fits all" solution for training just does not work. Is this practical and sustainable? For organizations onboarding large classes of new hires all at once, probably not. For us, onboarding an average of 8-10 per quarter, we have been able to reduce the time to productivity for Account Executives and Recruiters by 33% by using individualized training plans. Yes, it requires more training staff and time, but it's paying off in getting new hires productive sooner.
Trainers who know the Business
Look around your company and you might find some top performers who love to share their knowledge and help others grow. Could these be your next trainers? People who have a passion for our business and have been top performers can be your best professional development leaders. They can look beyond the mechanics of using the ATS or your sales process, and dig in deeper to help a new hire really understand the unwritten rules of what it takes to be successful at your company. And they sure do come to the table with a lot of credibility. If I know the person training me was the top performer at Motion year after year, that makes a big difference.
Survey, Measure and Stay Close
In addition to setting up regular checkpoints and maintaining our new hire performance dashboard, we also send an anonymous survey to all new hires after their onboarding and training. We learn a lot about what we are doing well and what we can be doing better, such as, "The training group I was part of will truly stay in touch and really bond with each other" or "Bob is great. His Agile Transformation presentation was so helpful" or from a recent survey, "Bring in Chick-fil-a for breakfast next time". Sometimes it's just all about the food.