In-Describable Onboarding: Onboarding as Insurance

What Fireworks and Haircuts Can Teach You about Effective Onboarding

Onboarding as Insurance

There is nothing quite like setting off fireworks to mark a special event, and they can teach us a lot about viewing Onboarding as Insurance. They can create a beautiful display, and their presence always means that something important is being celebrated. However, when it comes to setting them off at home, there is always a bit of concern regarding just what exactly will happen once the fuse is lit. Read more…

In-Describable Onboarding: Instructive Onboarding

Why Your Onboarding Process Should be Less Like a Jigsaw Puzzle and More Like Furniture Assembly Instructions

Instructive Onboarding

The trend toward assemble-it-yourself furniture has provided consumers with affordable pieces that look quite nice once finished. However, the trade-off for costing less is that the consumer must put the piece together herself, which is never as simple as she hopes. In fact, some would contend that the first big test in a marriage is when the newlyweds try to assemble their first cabinet. But even still, this approach has a lot to teach us about instructive onboarding. Read more…

In-Describable Onboarding: Introductory Onboarding

Why Starting a New Job is Like Moving to a New House, and How Introductory Onboarding Helps

Introductory Onboarding

They say that moving to a new house is one of the most stressful life events. Not only do you need to find and purchase your new home, but you must also move out from your old place and adapt to your new environment. If you lived in a similar home before, the transition is easier, and you may even expect to have very little to learn. But then you get the HOA agreement, the introductory onboarding of home ownership. Read more…

In-Describable Onboarding: Onboarding for Independence

How Effective Onboarding Grants Independence to Employees and Their Supervisors

Onboarding for Independence

Effective training has many different components, but when done correctly, it creates freedom for everyone within a company. Onboarding for independence means enabling each employee to focus on his or her own tasks. To see how, consider this old adage:

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; but teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

This saying helps to understand what it means to be onboarding for independence from a number of different standpoints. Let’s take a look at them one-by-one.

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5 Secrets to Hiring Like an All-Star

3 Habits to Adopt and 2 to Drop

Hiring

One of the great challenges in keeping a company running smoothly is hiring and keeping a talented and motivated team. When not done efficiently, tremendous amounts of time must be spent on implementing a hiring process, including posting openings, collecting and sorting applications, and interviewing potential hires. Fortunately, there are five simple secrets that will help you escape this cycle and begin hiring the right candidates at the right time. Read more…

The VICTOR System: Mastering Employee Engagement

The six steps for keeping your employees engaged

Employee Engagement

It is no secret that one of the greatest challenges in getting the most out of your employees is keeping them engaged in their work. What is far less well-known is how to do that. Fortunately, there are six simple steps that are essential to mastering employee engagement. Together, they make up what we call the VICTOR system:

  • Vocalizing
  • Instilling
  • Conveying
  • Training
  • Observing
  • Rewarding

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The Challenges of Onboarding Isolated Employees

How to account for the unique challenges posed by isolated employees

Onboarding Isolated Employees

What do construction workers, delivery drivers, and production line workers have in common?

I’ll give you a minute.

 

Okay, sure, the article title kind of gives it away. The answer is that they all spend a significant portion of their time working in isolation from their peers and supervisors. They are not the only ones, either, as there are many other jobs that require employees to spend much of their time alone. However, these isolated employees present a unique challenge in the onboarding process and require their managers to spend a little extra time to determine how to ensure they are successful. Read more…

Employee Onboarding and Efficiency

How good training practices increase your profit margin

Employee Onboarding and Efficiecny

Theoretically, employee onboarding and efficiency should always go hand-in-hand. The better trained an employee is, the more efficiently he or she will work. And while that is true, there are degrees to the correlation. That is to say, some onboarding solutions will produce more efficient employees than others.

A few of the reasons for this are immediately clear. If the onboarding program does a poor job of conveying the necessary information, the employee will not know how best to do her job. Similarly, if the program has all the relevant details but expresses them in a manner that does not engage the learner, it does no better than the incomplete training. These two points are important and described in more detail here and here, but there is another important side to the issue. Read more…

Employee Onboarding and Data Analytics

Why an Employee Onboarding Program Must Provide Statistical Feedback to Be Effective

Employee Onboarding and Data Analytics

It’s no secret that there has been a revolution in statistical research and application in the last decade. Analytics now guide everything from baseball teams to websites recommended to us to who social media sites believe should be our friends. Within the business realm, analytics help to hone production techniques, target advertisements, and anticipate new market trends.

But there’s another way in which statistical information can help a business succeed. Data analytics provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of an employee onboarding solution, telling managers what is working and what is not. Moreover, it sheds light on those employees that might need a little more instruction or on those safety procedures that are being neglected.

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The Importance of Individualized Employee Onboarding

Why More and More Companies Are Making the Shift to Individualized Employee Onboarding

Individualized Training

Individualized employee onboarding has a lot in common with pigeons. To explain, though, I have to start with yoga.

If you ever want to feel really bad about your coordination or control of your body, go to an advanced yoga class. There, you’ll see a number of people who have trained their bodies and mind to hold positions you never thought possible. Some of those poses may even require you to stare for a moment or two before you really understand what’s happening.

Suppose your curiosity gets the better of you and you decide to stay and take part in that class session.

Prepare to be humbled.

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