An American Society for Training & Development survey discovered that 65 percent of responding employees said that the quality of training and learning opportunities influences their level of engagement. In other words, nearly two-thirds of workers have the potential to become great workers if given the right training.
The onboarding of new employees is always an adventure—no matter what a person’s resume looks like, you never know what to expect from that worker during the first few days. Will she turn out to be a model employee? Will he flake out after a week? Human resources training can go a long way to engaging new hires so that they land closer to the model employee than to the flake-out. But training and HR departments simply can’t expect to show just any content and expect hires to enthusiastically buy in. Here are four ways to keep new employees engaged in human resources training:
1. Don’t plop them in front of a TV
Most employees at one point or another have watched a “Welcome to the Company” video on their first day at a new job. Such videos often are source of amusement, trepidation, annoyance, or even boredom, but sometimes they are necessary for new hires to watch. Human resources training shouldn’t be imposing, preachy, or sleep-inducing, but that’s exactly what a new employee might feel when sat down at a table in back room or office, forced to watch a television on their first day of work. Struggling to stay awake is not the impression you want hires to initially feel. If video is part of new-employee training, place the content on a mobile device such as a tablet. The hire can watch the video someplace comfortable, and not necessarily during the first hour of the new job.
2. Reduce the amount of reading material
New hires might also be given reams of human resources training materials during their first days. How much of this content is actually read and how much is thrown into a desk or a locker, barely referenced ever again, is a problem—disengaged employees are more likely to do the latter. Some reading material might be inevitable, but that doesn’t mean it should overwhelm workers. Tablets offer another viable (and cost-efficient) alternative. Content can be made accessible on mobile devices, again offering convenience and an opportunity for hires to embrace the information rather than be turned off by it. Furthermore, with this sort of solution, you can track whether human resources training materials are indeed being read.
3. Solicit their feedback
Hires who are lectured early in their tenure might naturally feel put off by their new employment. Alternatively, workers whose opinions are valued during their first days will more likely become engaged. Human resources training solutions that offer employees the chance to offer feedback and ask questions—and receive replies to their questions and concerns—can produce workers who feel more invested in their new jobs.
4. Get them on the floor faster
A new hire may feel excited to start a job, only to have that enthusiasm quashed by a few days of training nowhere near where he or she will be performing that job. Getting employees onto the floor faster and learning their jobs in the field rather than in the back of the store can increase engagement and sustain that enthusiasm. Interactive, tablet-based solutions provide hands-on training that gets employees involved within a few hours rather than a few days.
How effective is your human resources training in keeping employees engaged?
