Training managers strengthen bonds via seamless onboarding. This blog covers onboarding's benefits, traditional learning issues, and eLearning solutions.
First impressions always create a lasting impact. Employee onboarding is your chance to create a good first impression on your employees. Onboarding is not just years old video from the CEO or a casual office tour. Instead, it is a way to make your new employees feel welcomed and valued and set them up for success. From paperwork to system setup, and from orientation to training- onboarding is your chance to set the foundation for a long-lasting relationship between the employees and the organization. To facilitate this, and to impart valuable knowledge to newcomers, more and more organizations have started incorporating eLearning in their onboarding training programs.
This blog talks about the importance of onboarding training, the challenges faced via traditional learning formats and how to leverage eLearning to overcome these challenges.
Traditional Learning vs eLearning- Which One to Choose For Onboarding Training?
Here are some compelling reasons to opt for eLearning:
- Offers Consistent and Convenient Training
- Increases Employee Engagement and Productivity
- Facilitates Active Learning
Importance of Onboarding Program
A well-designed onboarding program improves employee loyalty, retention and business productivity- all very important metrics for an organization.
Here are some reasons why onboarding is important for organizations
1. Give Employees a Good Headstart And Acclimates Them With The Organization
An effective onboarding program conveys the vision, mission and objectives of the organization. This gives employees a nice headstart and a chance to get acclimated to the company. It gives new hires an overview of the company culture- how they interact, the working style, career development opportunities, etc. Thus, a properly planned onboarding program is essential to align the employees with their new company.
2. Makes Employees Feel Included
It is quite natural for new hires to feel nervous and stay aloof in the initial few days of their joining. But, it is the organization’s responsibility to make them feel welcomed and valued. You should invest some time and resources in developing a smooth onboarding program, and curate a welcoming and positive experience for them. Doing so, will make them feel included and encourage them to give their 100% at work.
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3. Makes Employees Engage With The Company
When employees have a clear understanding of the company’s culture, they are more likely to become engaged. An effective onboarding experience demonstrates the organization’s dedication towards the new employee, which in turn, creates a positive impact on them and they become more committed to their new role. It also encourages them to engage with the company- follow the company culture, learn their working style, interact with their colleagues and maintain decorum. All these make employees perform best at their work and improve the organization’s overall success.
4. Ensures Work Compliance
Compliance training is an important requisite for any organization and it is necessary to convey the same to the new joinee. Maintaining compliance keeps the business protected, and an effective onboarding program ensures the employees are aware of the organization’s compliances: what kind of work conduct is expected, how to interact with colleagues and customers, work discipline, and others.
Challenges In Onboarding Training Using Traditional Learning
1. Inability to Adjust to Time Schedules
New employees face many transitions. They have entered a new environment- a new job, new people, new roles, new expectations, and sometimes, even a new city!
In a traditional onboarding session where everyone is required to be present at the same time, and at the same place, new employees might find it difficult to adjust to everyone’s schedule. This can set the new employee up for failure and can have a disastrous effect on the organization. To avoid this, you need to develop flexible and efficient training programs which can be done through eLearning. By facilitating concept-specific microlearning modules and interactive storytelling methods, you can train your employees about the company culture, work requirements, and skills needed to perform their best.
2. Information Overload In The Initial Training Days
One of the main challenges of onboarding using traditional learning is the overload of information in the initial days. From pep talks to brochures, new information is being shared at every point. While you might be tempted to bring your employees to speed as soon as they join, this could overwhelm them, and they won’t be able to retain much of this information. With the use of eLearning modules, employees can have access to their training throughout and they can learn and brush up their knowledge whenever they want. This way, eLearning can facilitate continuous learning and give employees time to absorb and retain the information.
3. Lack Of Employee Engagement
Employees often lose interest in the mundane traditional onboarding training programs. This also negatively impacts the relationship between the new joinee and the company in the very beginning. Hence, it is important to focus on employee engagement throughout the onboarding process. eLearning allows for an interactive and enjoyable learning experience for the employees. Using different instructional design strategies like microlearning, simulation, guided learning, etc., you can foster active and engaged learning for your employees.
A poor onboarding program can inhibit workplace efficiency and set up new employees for failure. To overcome these challenges and create a seamless learning experience for new employees, organizations have started shifting to eLearning for onboarding training.
How To Use eLearning For Onboarding Training?
eLearning plays a vital role in increasing the productivity of your new hires and sets the tone for this during their onboarding training. It holds great potential as it ensures consistent and flexible delivery of information to new employees.
Check out this case study video to understand the benefits of interactive eLearning for onboarding training.
1. Create A User-Friendly Course Interface
One of the benefits of using eLearning is to create interactive and immersive learning for new employees. For example, you can have a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) and let your learners interact while learning. They can explore more about your organization, departments, leadership team, etc., using flowcharts and animations. This way, they can learn all the necessary information without depending on anyone.
2. Use Guided Learning To Explain Roles And Responsibilities
Guided learning is a popular instructional strategy that uses interactive characters or avatars to facilitate eLearning. Be it a personified animated object or a person of authority- it facilitates the perfect onboarding training as it provides the necessary handholding to new employees through a virtual environment. This can help new hires understand their work requirements and the roles & responsibilities that they are supposed to take up. It also helps them get acquainted with the products and services of the business, thereby improving their knowledge and enhancing their work potential.
3. Use Game-Based Learning
Onboarding training includes information on compliance, safety, code of conduct, information security, business culture, and so on. Using eLearning to drill down this information to new hires can be more engaging for them. Using gamification and its elements like rewards, achievements, badges and leaderboards, provides a fun and engaging twist to the mundane training courses.
Gamified learning also motivates new hires to acquire the skills and knowledge they need for their job and aims at encouraging unfathomable growth for your organization.
4. Engage Employees Using Multimedia
eLearning modules facilitate a media-rich learning experience for new employees. By including various elements like infographics, videos, animations, audio, etc. eLearning can break the monotony of text-only learning and provide learners with an opportunity for active learning. Hence, incorporating multimedia to your onboarding training can enable an engaging learning experience for the employees.
With eLearning, new employees will be well-prepared and confident to perform their job. This in turn will lead to improved job satisfaction and keep them motivated throughout their tenure with the organization.
Takeaways
eLearning is a great way to prime your new employees with the needs and objectives of the organization. While traditional learning often dictates knowledge upon the employees, eLearning allows them to participate freely and actively learn what they want. Thus, it is a powerful tool that organizations can leverage to provide convenient, consistent and engaging onboarding training to new hires.
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