Having A Solid Talent System

For the November post we talked about the concept of A.B.H. (Always Be Hiring) and the difference great talent can make in your organization. This month we will build on the hiring aspect of a solid Talent System with a focus on the importance of on-boarding and training for new members of your team.

You don’t have to go far to see all kinds of content out there on challenges with talent in organizations. I can’t recall a time on my 30 plus years of working that I can remember getting and keeping the best people to be so challenging. IN fact, when you look at our website, we call out 2 key talent related data points, trust in leadership by front line employees being at around 21% and percentage of employees who are engaged being in the low 30’s. It isn’t a wonder that our last data point the percentage of change investments that return their planed ROI is around 30%. So, what is the one, two or three things creating these outcomes?

Well, the easy answer might be “leadership”? But what about leadership? Is it correlated to the environment being created by the leadership along with the employees they work with? Is it something broader? Is it the nature of our economy now? Low unemployment, more jobs than people who want them which is creating a new job-hopping dynamic we have not seen before?

I would imagine that all the above is true and likely many more factors that are contributing to the three problems we are Getting Thru Consulting are looking to guide our clients to solve. For this blog post I will share some thoughts on the importance of how new team members are on-boarded and trained, especially as they are new to an organization and team.

While I cannot be certain to what is causing some of these challenges, I know something that will absolutely help you get and keep the best people, on board and train them. Yep, simple as that, when you hire an A player, and for some that can be a leap it’s critical that you are properly on-board them and provide them the training to help them become the best version on themselves as they work for your organization.

As you read this you may be asking, what is the difference between on-boarding and training, is there one? Well, I can share this perspective. When you are on-boarding someone you are showing them things like, where the bathroom is, the cafeteria, where they park on the 1st day. You show them a video on the history of the company, walk them through some of the company’s proudest moments along with some of its challenges. All of this and more could take up to a week, maybe two and should end with a detailed recap and feedback session where your new team member tells you, are their new leader what they learned about their new company, co-workers, direct leader, and the leader that leads their entire work group.

Now let’s talk a bit about training and how we define that. If on-boarding is learning about WHO you work for and WHY it matters, training is about the actual job you do, day and day out. This is the tactical work that helps you learn and grow in your job.

When you look at why people leave jobs/companies its generally due to their leader and/or lack of training. I would say this goes for both on-boarding and training. Now training is a multi-month process and no manager/leader/P and L owner reading this it doesn’t mean these new folks aren’t working and contributing it means they are in training. I have been taught for years and maybe you agree that it takes 90 days to build and develop new habits, well if that is indeed true why would we expect a new employee to be great at their new job, 1st day, week or even month.

AT Getting Thru we have extensive experience at building out and executing talent systems, including On-Boarding and Training strategies that will energize your teams and leaders resulting in better served customers and vastly improved results. In fact, our Managing Partner led the effort to train and develop over 150,000 employees so he knows a thing or two about this subject.