Entry level employees can’t learn how to do their jobs sitting in a classroom or completing an LMS course. The only way to learn a skill is to actually practice it. That’s where your trainers come in. They prepare your new employees for success by providing them with on-the-job training.
NFL teams have individual trainers for each position. In baseball, there are hitting coaches and pitching coaches. Professional teams have big budgets, and they can afford to pay for specialized trainers. Most of us can’t. Ask yourself, “How skilled are my trainers? Are they consistent? Do they teach each new employee the same way every time? Do they evaluate their trainees and hold them accountable?”
In most entry-level, high-turnover occupations, skills-based training is extremely important. Here are just six things to keep in mind when it comes to new-hire training.
- Providing Feedback: New employees need feedback and guidance when they first start out. Without proper training, they’ll develop bad habits – habits will cost you money in the form of accidents, scrap and lost productivity. Your trainers will help you avoid these problems when they provide real-time feedback. With instant feedback, your new employees will learn the right way to do the job the first time, every time.
- Providing Coaching: Each new employee has unique strengths, weaknesses, and their own learning style. Great trainers tailor their approach to each trainee’s needs. This leads to better outcomes and creates a more inclusive environment. But not all trainers are great. Some need a Skills Training System to get the job done right.
- Addressing Challenges: At some point, we’ve all tried to learn a new skill, struggled, and quit before we got the hang of it. Some of your new hires won’t make it through training. That’s to be expected. But you don’t want to lose any quality workers. You need caring trainers who show patience and support as the trainee faces early challenges.
- Ensuring Consistency: If you leave your training up to your trainers, you’ll probably get inconsistent results. The quality of the training will vary from one trainer to the next. You need consistency. Imagine if every new employee learned how to do it the same way every time. No lost productivity. No accidents. No scrap.
- Mentorship: The best way to improve retention in high turnover jobs is to provide your new employees with a mentor. Trainers are built-in mentors. If your new employees develop a bond with their trainer, they will want to stick around. And when they have a problem, they will have someone to turn to.
- Career Opportunities: Another great way to improve retention is to provide new employees with an easy first step up the corporate ladder. When you create a trainer position, you’ve just created another rung on the career ladder. Your best entry-level employees can soon become trainers. This makes you a more attractive employer and improves your retention.
Your trainers might be the most important people at your company. They can increase retention, recruiting efforts, and productivity all while reducing cost of loss.
If you want to take your training efforts to the next level, consider implementing a tool like the Instructor Mobile App. Instructor the is the world’s first Skills Training System (STS). It helps your
trainers consistently teach new employees job-related skills, track and record their progress, and automatically create complete and compliant training files.
Find out how to revolutionize your training. Book a demo today at www.instructormobile.com.
