How to Train New Employees: A Complete Guide


A study found that around 16.45% of new employees quit their jobs within the first week. 

While the hiring process for any company can be difficult, retaining employees is another set of skills that is just as important for a business.

If you don’t train your new employees well, they may decide to leave.

Do you want to know how to train new employees in the best way possible? If so, keep reading below to learn the basics of training new employees and what you can do to make sure they stick around.

Start Out Slowly

After you hire new employees, they usually will have a new employee course or online training course to complete. Once this is done, however, they are going to be pushed out into the actual work they were hired for.

This can be an overwhelming time for any employee as they get used to the new workplace and their coworkers.

In addition to that, it could be a new type of work for them or their first real job.

If possible, it is a good idea to give the employees time to settle into the new role before loading up their schedule. 

A new employee is likely to be eager about the position and nervous at the same time. They also have learned a lot of information in a short period of time, so they feel stressed about remembering everything.

Start out with giving them smaller tasks or fewer tasks at once. As they seem to be picking up the pace and getting things accomplished, you can add more until they get to their full workload expectation.

Check-In With Them Often 

One of the things that you have to do when managing new employees is regularly check-in with them, and ask how things are going. Usually, this is an expectation of managers in any field.

While doing this once or twice a month may seem like plenty to you, a new hire may be suffering, and you won’t even know it. If you have a new employee that doesn’t know you very well yet, they may not feel comfortable telling you when things are going wrong.

As a manager, checking in with your newer employees more often than you may think is necessary is a smart move. Not only do you get to ensure that they are handling the work well, but you get to know them better, and create a relationship.

This relationship will help you as you continue to work with your new hire to develop their skills and their place within the office. 

Give Them Work to Do

A mistake that hiring managers make is asking new hires to take notes for days and days after their start date. They may be shadowing other people or doing other things that their managers want them to observe.

Although this is fine to do for a small period, you want to give your new employees tasks sooner rather than later. People learn by doing more often than they learn by writing things down.

Your new hire is eager to be there, so use that energy toward something productive. It’ll make them more comfortable when they have something tangible to work on, and it’ll help them feel more acclimated to the office at the same time. 

Help Them Meet People

One of the hardest things about starting a new job can be not knowing anyone there.

The nerves often get to new people in any job, and this can make it hard to meet new people. Once your hire gets into a groove, they may feel like it’s too late to start trying to make those friendships, and this can create a feeling of isolation. 

Let your new hire get some of their training with people on their team or someone that has a similar job to theirs. Assign someone to work with them for the first few weeks so that they know a friendly face. 

Another plus to assigning a mentor is that they have another person to ask questions to. If they aren’t necessarily comfortable asking you or don’t want to wait around, there is another way for them to get questions answered quickly. 

Talk About Goals

Discussing the goals of your business and the goals of your new hire is crucial. Finding a way to connect the goals will allow your new employee to feel like they are part of the bigger picture.

You will want to find out what they want to get out of working for you, what goals they have for their new position, and what their short-term goals look like. You can do this by asking questions, either in person or through a questionnaire.

In fact, you can make your own test online for them to complete on their own during the first few days. This will make them feel more comfortable with answering the questions honestly, and it will give them time to think of the best answer possible. 

Learn How to Train New Employees Best

Now that you have some of the basics about how to train new employees down, it’s time to apply these skills to your next training session.

Whether you are working at a non-profit organization or at a tech startup, these skills will come in handy. People want to be valued, so make sure your employees know that you care.

Do you want to learn more about keeping your employees happy? If so, check out more of our content here today.

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