Training Employees - Small Business Management...Part 4

Training Employees – Small Business Management…Part 4

Training employees isn’t as easy as 1-2-3. It is important to have a plan in place when you hire new team members. The plan may differ based on your industry, the age of your company and how many team members you have. As usual, the most important thing is that you HAVE a plan.

New team members face many obstacles. Not only do they need to perform the job you hired them for, they also want to learn your culture and fit in socially. Here we will cover some different ways improve the training process and make it better for all involved. You can take one or all of the suggestions we have!

Training Employees For Optimal Performance

Give them a point person or mentor – Introduce them to someone right away (that isn’t you). This is someone they can direct all questions to (big or small). This should be an existing team member who knows their role is to be a helpmate. This will aid the new team member in assimilating into your culture.
Show them your training manual – If you don’t have a full training manual, show them any materials, resources or tools you have. This could be documents, past projects, software, etc…really anything to help them.
Give them a training schedule – It is likely the new employee’s permanent schedule isn’t the best one to train on. Maybe they need to shadow multiple people or multiple processes. This may include opening, closing or experiencing different job duties done at different times.
Schedule at least three check-ins – It is always nice when the person who hired you checks in and sees how things are progressing. Make it a point to schedule a check-in within the first three days. Then at the end of the first week and again two to three weeks later. These meetings are not to discuss performance. These meetings are to make sure the new team member has everything they need to excel and their questions are answered.

Most endeavors are lost in the execution (as we have discussed before). Having a wonderful system or program for training employees is very important for your small business. Don’t fail to plan, start brainstorming now for your next great hire!