Training new employees is an obvious way to get them ready for their new job. But did you know training is also a great way to retain new hires? In fact, seven out of ten employees say that training and development opportunities influence their decision to stay at a company. So if you want your new employee to stay and be an integral part of your team, you need to train them.

But not all types of training are going to make your new employee want to stay. A poll by Axonify found that 43% of training is considered ineffective by the participating employees. That means your training methods could actually be hurting your employee retention. So, how can you make sure your training will benefit employees?

In this article, we’ll consider 7 ways you can make your training program more effective.

1. Tell the New Hire What You Expect

Individual managers have different expectations for new hires. This may confuse your new employee as to what you expect from them in the first few months. That’s why expectations should be set during their training.

Where do you start?

Start by explaining how your company’s training process works, what you expect them to learn, and how you will measure their progress. This is a great way for you to establish open communication with your new employee. But, how can you encourage them to communicate with co-workers?

2. Help Your Employees Feel Comfortable Communicating

“Businesses with effective communication are 50% more likely to have lower employee turnover.”
–  ClearCompany

Your new hire won’t succeed if they feel uncomfortable communicating with their co-workers. After all, open communication is an essential part of being in a team.

A great way to help your employees feel comfortable communicating is to schedule one-on-one meetings with them. These meetings should give the new hire a chance to ask questions and voice concerns. It’s also a good time to find out how your new hire prefers to communicate. While some communication methods will be standard, other parts of your business can change depending on the department.

After you establish an open channel of communication for your employee, it’s time to explain the nuances of departmental systems to your new hire.

3. Explain Your Company’s Systems and Procedures

Computer systems, company procedures, and even project management can vary from department to department. For your new hire to be effective, they’ll need to understand the differences between your team’s systems and procedures. Knowing how to use these systems enables them to work with confidence and avoid unnecessary mistakes.

Depending on the job, it may be good to take a hands-on approach to training. For example, after explaining how to perform a task, you may want to watch the new hire go through one of the procedures or use one of the systems. This tells you how well they understand your instructions and what they’ll need more help with.

4. Give the New Hire Feedback

During the training process, the new hire will likely find areas where they need to improve. You can help them by giving constructive criticism on their work. This doesn’t have to be a formal meeting and might even be more effective in an informal setting, especially at first.

Include your employee in the feedback process. You can do this by brainstorming ideas on how they can improve or how to improve the process. For more help, you can also have employees in similar roles or situations explain what they did to improve.

5. Company Culture Matters

“47% of people that are actively looking for a job cited company culture as the reason for leaving their job.”
–  Hays US Survey “What People Want“

Educating new hires on company culture is vital if you want them to stay. After all, company culture dictates what the company values in employees. It also guides how to act at work and how employees should handle certain situations.

You can teach your new hire the company culture in these ways:

• Explain the goals and values of your company
• Be clear about expectations for company conduct
• Talk about the work environment
• Be an example of your company’s culture

Clearly explaining company culture shows how important this is for your team. This will help your new hire take it seriously and try to fit in.

6. Get the Whole Team Involved

Your new hire will likely be working closely with other employees. You can help your team work well together by having existing employees take part in the training process. This way they’ll also get to see the company culture in action.

Include employees in your new hire’s training by:

• Using them as mentors or training staff
• Encouraging everyone to embrace the new hire by being welcoming
• Having them share their experience as a new hire

Now that the new hire learned all this, you need to give them time to practice their new skills.

7. Give Them Time to Practice

As your employee learns new skills, they’ll have to practice to become proficient. Training is an excellent way for employees to practice new skills because they can practice in a controlled environment. Unfortunately, many companies stop training before employees are able to use their new skills.

Don’t stop training right after the onboarding process. Help your new hire along by continuing to train them. By scheduling reviews, refresher courses, and giving them opportunities to practice new skills in the classroom, you’ll ensure your new hires have the best chance to succeed.

Train for Success

After going through all the trouble of finding and training a new employee, you want them to stick around. By training employees, you can reduce turnover by up to 50%.

In this article, we’ve discussed how to train new hires by letting new hires know what to expect, helping them feel comfortable communicating, getting the whole team involved, giving them feedback, teaching them company culture, and helping them practice their skills. But now that you know how to improve your training process, you may want to improve your hiring process.

We can help with that. Download Trusted Employee’s free ebook Supercharge Your Hiring Process. This 11 step checklist will help you streamline your hiring process. Jumpstart your hiring by downloading it today.