Having been in office work for more years than I care to mention one situation that always threw up difficulties was the training of any new employees. What would happen after the initial introductions was this; a member of staff would be randomly chosen to ‘show the new member of staff the ropes’.
Choosing which employee to undertake the induction was very much a spur of the moment decision, sometimes based on who caught the Director or Managers eye at the time.
Giving an existing employee the task for training is a risky decision, once you have interviewed a number of candidates and a positive decision has been it is critical that the new employee is made to feel welcomed, have an excellent first impression of the company and the people in it and have a well thought out and thorough plan of induction.
So many times on a first day at a company a new member of staff has been plonked next to the busiest member of the team to get an understanding of the job! There are a number of reasons why a business should focus seriously on training new staff, whether it’s a small, medium or a large company, new employees deserve to have the very best start to what could be a long and productive career. Staff retention, as we know, is key to a successful business.
Why you should avoid placing new staff with existing personnel for training.
- As mentioned, existing staff, if being utilised efficiently will not have the time to undertake a comprehensive induction of the job or the company
- Randomly choosing a member of staff to undertake staff training can be extremely disruptive and have a negative outcome
- Existing staff member can feel ‘put upon’, feel under pressure and undervalued as generally there is no incentive to train new employees
- Existing staff member may have a negative view on the company and management and can undermine the whole induction process
The most effective way to train new staff is to interview internally for the role, this should be a full time role (depending on size of organisation) or a role added to a persons job description and paid accordingly.
Choosing the right candidate is extremely important, they must be loyal to the company, have excellent working relationships with first line and middle management, have an understanding of all IT Systems, have patience, have effective time management, be dedicated and personable. Ideally, in a larger organisation staff training should be a full time job, smaller companies may need to add the additional responsibility of staff training to a persons contract and job description and adjust their pay accordingly to reflect this. It is important that in smaller organisations the person is happy and willing to undertake this responsibility and that management is aware that work delegation is required to enable full focus on induction training.
It would also be advisable to have your existing employee trained professionally to induct others, as it’s not easy!
Train the Trainer training can purchased and be undertaken remotely via LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/learning/train-the-trainer
Written by Susan Morgan, Director and Owner
*Professional background www.ibm.com, www.redboxteachers.com