5 Things Your Company Training Is Missing

As your company grows and you add more teammates to the roster…

Things get more complicated. 

It’s inevitable. 

Each person you add to your team will add a new dynamic to the conversations, the delivery of your services, and even how your accountabilities are distributed internally. 

If the training process is done well, it can kick off a beautiful relationship.

If the training process is done poorly, bad habits can begin to fester within your already performing team. 

When I work with a company on their team training, one of the biggest things we do is organize resources. 

We make a timeline, put things in order, and then monitor that individual's understanding of the material. 

We’ve built a ton of training programs over the last 7 years. 

And these are the 5 things almost every single one is missing when we begin working with them…

These 5 crucial elements make up the bones or the environment for training. 

Your material has to be good.

But not creating a training environment and establishing a program can make even the best training material fall flat. 

So, here goes…

 

#1: The Intentional Outline

Ever get into a car for a long journey?

One to a place you’ve never been before?

What’s the first thing you do?

Probably type the address (or destination) into your GPS. 

We don’t start driving and find the first highway we see…

Jump on it and hope we’re going in the right direction. 

We have a plan. 

(At least a loose one). 

For how to get where we’re going. 

I see this all the time.

Maybe there’s a job description or a list of things someone is expected to do…

But how they get proficient in those tasks or responsibilities is a little, well, nebulous. 

When you have a new teammate starting at your company, the “A” players will want a path. 

They’ll want to know how to be successful and what exactly is expected within the timeframe of training. 

They’ll want to be out on their own and contributing to the success of the team autonomously…

Quickly. 

Give them that chance. 

An intentional outline for most organizations looks really simple:

What do the first 4 weeks look like?

Overall, we want a 90-day runway to get someone up to speed depending on the complexity of the role. 

But, outlining the first 4 weeks gives us a bit of a head start. 

Here’s an example of an intentional outline for a new hire:

 

Week 1– do they understand the basics of the company? 

✅What we do.

✅What services we offer. 

✅Why we’re different.

✅What are core values are. 

✅How to make decisions.

 

Week 2– do they understand the basics of their role?

✅Who they’ll be working with.

✅Where to find things they need.

✅Baseline performance of daily tasks. 

 

Week 3– can they demonstrate skills?

✅Can perform tasks without help. 

✅Can ask pointed questions about expectations. 

✅Is performing tasks with little to no reminders. 

 

Week 4– can they self-direct?

✅Autonomous in the majority of their work. 

✅Hitting baseline Key Performance Indicators. 

✅Can collaborate proactively with the team to get what they need to support their work. 

✅Can connect teammates they manage with resources for their work. 

 

Without a clear outline of the basic checkpoints, training starts to stagnate and we see teammates losing touch with their reason for joining the team in the first place. 

Not a great start for someone who wants to make a positive impact at an organization. 

Help them be successful by charting their course. 

 

#2: The Dedicated Mentor

Luke had Obi Wan. 

Daniel had Mr. Miyagi. 

Your team needs a mentor. 

Someone they can ask questions to and sidebar if things get confusing. 

Your mentor should be aware of expectations ahead of time so that they can adequately prepare for the time and energy that it will take to mentor someone new. 

(don’t worry, this person won’t be shouldering all the training– hang tight for #3)

The mentor should have regular meetings and a 1 on 1 line of communication with a trainee. 

They’ll have opportunities to answer ad hoc questions and check in overall on the process of training. 

Ideally, mentors are more senior in a similar role that you are hiring for, but not a direct manager. 

Think of the relationship between mentor and mentee. 

Typically the mentor isn’t the manager, they are the more experienced party. 

In my experience, if we assign the manager (or the boss) to the mentor category, the trainee will hold back from asking critical questions early on.

They don’t want to look like they don’t know what they are doing. 

The mentor is the person they can ask a ton of questions to without fear of judgment throughout the process. 

Of course, if they’re just not getting it, having a mentor voice in place to help you (the manager) gauge whether things are going well is prudent. 

If you’re training a technician…

Place them with a mentor who has a few years more experience. 

Set up weekly meetings with them to chat about questions and even have them do some shadowing if you have the bandwidth. 

It’ll give the new person a relationship they can rely on as they get their footing at the organization.

 

#3: The Self-Paced Download

Creating a centralized area for training is crucial. 

We love Trainual.

But if you’re not ready for a platform, setting everything up in Google Sheets/docs is the next best thing. 

Create a learning tool that can help self-pace learning for new hires. 

It saves the company a ton of time and money. 

And, it actually makes things a lot easier for your incoming team. 

They can learn, watch, re-watch, and reference at their own pace.

It beats having someone train a new person from scratch, perhaps forgetting some important information or key elements.

Everything is right there.

Everyone gets the same training. 

It builds confidence and consistency within your team. 

I like to structure my training like this:

1. Teach a concept.
2. Give them an opportunity to look over the step-by-step process.
3. Show them an example (or definition of done)
4. Give them an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned (see #2).

Simple. 

Self-directed may feel like the time you went to the DMV to get your license. 

They probably stuck you in a little cubicle with a massively old computer and told you to take your multiple-choice test. 

This isn’t that. 

You can add all your material to a learning management software and have them view your training in digestible, bite-sized chunks. 

You can get serious about the sequence, what’s covered (and when) and even involve assessments, queues to schedule meetings, and practical application prompts so they can do some practice work before showing up with a manager. 

Imagine being a trainer or a manager and someone shows up to a meeting already having learned the nuts and bolts of what you were going to teach…

Then you get to spend your time answering questions and reviewing the example work they did?

Dreamy, right?

Self-directed training is massively important for the new person coming in to train.

It’s also massively important to have that information documented and centralized so people can refer to it over the lifetime of their work with you.

The best books I’ve ever read and courses I’ve ever taken, I reference often. I have earmarked pages and bookmarked lessons. 

I have them handy in case I need a reminder. 

It accelerates the training process and gives folks the space they need to consume the information at their own pace. 

 

#4: The Pulse Check

If you’ve done everything right up ‘til this point, the pulse check should be easy. 

You’re adding in scheduled meetings with manager and mentor to see how the trainee is doing with their skills.

I love setting folks up for success by sharing the expectations (or expected abilities) before each of the meetings. 

For example, if you’re supposed to be able to create a critical report by check-in #2…

We should have already taught them about the report in our self-directed training and even allowed them to create an example for us before the meeting. 

Pulse checks should be quick, answer questions, and assess the improvement of your new hire. 

Make sure you schedule the pulse checks in the early part of onboarding. 

In my experience, a meeting on the calendar is moved. 

A meeting not on the calendar has a chance that it’ll never actually happen. 

Put the pulse checks on the calendar and follow them. 

It shows your team that you’re invested in their success and that you care about them upskilling and meeting the standards of their role. 

In a pulse check meeting you’ll want to assess a few common things…

1. Are they consuming the training?
2. Are they making use of their mentor?
3. Are they demonstrating the key skills highlighted by this point in their training?
4. Are they meeting/exceeding their key performance indicators?
5. What questions or feedback do they have for you?

Most pulse check meetings have all or some of the items listed above in the agenda. 

If you have done your outline well, these should be really simple and set you up to have a really really great discussion in the pulse check meeting. 

Make sure you do not skip #5. 

You’ll want to get feedback from your new hire every pulse check meeting and give them an asynchronous way to voice their questions and give feedback. 

If something was missing or unclear in the self-directed training, this is your opportunity to correct that with the trainee.

And your signal to go update it in your training portal. 

 

#5: The Graduation Ceremony

Ever finish something big? 

A marathon, a bachelor’s degree, a course or program…

It’s really obvious when it’s done, right?

You cross a gigantic finish line.

Or receive a certificate in front of your peers.

Or have a mini celebration to commemorate the end of an achievement. 

We need to do that with our training. 

It signals the end of our learning period and the start of our contribution as a fully-functioning member of the team. 

There’s something psychological that happens when we celebrate something that we’ve finished.

Confidence builds. 

And we see ourselves a little differently.

We want our new hire to see themselves differently. 

As a member of our team with endless possibilities. 

They did it. They crushed our training program.

And, now, the sky is the limit. 

Setting up something small like a gift, a certificate or a little ceremony on your weekly meeting will go a long way. 

I’ve seen graduation ceremonies as light-hearted and fun as getting a placard for someone’s desk and as intricate as a trophy ceremony after a 6-week training program. 

It should be…

1. Timely: make sure they’re actually done training. 
2. Congratulatory: make sure they know they have done a lot of hard work and the entire team is excited for their contribution. 
3. Fun: make it exciting to be a part of for the trainee and the rest of the team. Make it an activity that fits in with your culture. 

Some companies reinvent the wheel when it comes to training.

And doing so means that the finish line can be nebulous. 

Your trainee wants to know that they’ve done a good job and that they belong. 

Graduation can signal their compensation and benefits as well. 

If you have training rates, or a requirement of 45 days before benefits kick in, etc. 

Take this opportunity to do something different for your team and close out training with promise and excitement. 

Now you have what you need to create an excellent training experience for your team. 

This will unlock incredible productivity, connect your people, and create the consistency that will help you grow quickly. 

If you’re ready to build a business that doesn’t suck the life out of you or your team…

 

If you want to get your business out of your brain and down onto paper, organize your company training, and unleash the power of your team, we’re the best in the world at helping you do that. 

 

Apply now to work with us. ⬅️

 

Remember, the goal isn’t to overwhelm your people with a firehose full of information. It’s to intentionally create a timeline for learning and document the key elements of your process. 

Create standards for your team to meet.

And guardrails for them to operate. 

In your corner, 

Aly

 

Stay tuned for more quick and practical operations tips.

Until next time!