How to Train New Employees

How you onboard new employees directly impacts retention and turnover. And “employee turnover is a costly problem,” according to Mindflash.com, “And with 22% of employees leaving their jobs within the first 45 days of employment, it’s all the more important to be sure that your employees are assimilated into your company with special care and ease.”

We asked ten entrepreneurs to share their advice on how to properly train and educate employees and here is what they had to say:

1. First provide direct employee training.

“It provides a foundation for knowledge to grow. The manager (or owner) should then bring in other experts to help train employees. The training experience from experts will be different than [yours], allowing for your employees to learn in different ways. Don’t forget to do a mini-quiz at the end.”

2. Look to optimize employees’ strengths.

“Start employees out as generalists for an initial training (and trial) period. Then, allow them to quickly grow into more specialized roles … In a small and growing business when every employee must be able to wear many hats, this builds a strong foundation. Every member of the team will be comfortable and competent in all the in’s and out’s of your organization, in addition to their specific areas of focus.”

3. Use an e-learning program to train employees.

“In 2012, we used an e-learning platform to create Blue Corona University and a series of several dozen courses. The subject of each course ranges from general company to role-specific knowledge and general industry insights. The typical course combines videos, multiple choice, fill in the blank, puzzles, games, and essays. Each course is followed by a quiz. Earning certain quiz scores and completing various course sequences earns employees prizes and promotions.”

4. Give new employees a task, in lieu of training.

“Not only will employees learn a lot while they work on the task, you will have something done by the end of it [and] it will help them to make the most of the follow-up training (as they can relate it to their own experience). This works [especially] well in the management of employees who [have] never supervised others before; educating them without previous preparation will be inefficient as they will not understand the practical implications of the training and will forget the new information shortly.”

5. Encourage employees to share their expertise.

“Once a month, VoIP Supply holds MBA Mondays where employees lead a training session to help their peers learn more about  their area of expertise, such as HTML, building Excel spreadsheets, or writing a business plan.”