How To Create A Successful Employee Online Training Orientation Program
Employee orientation is a demanding process, as its purpose is not only to provide onboarding employees with the information necessary to begin a successful career in your organization, but also to make them feel both proud and excited to work for you. The orientation process must promote a broad understanding of your company’s policies, culture, and values, as well as thoroughly inform new starters about their duties, and the terms and conditions of their new work environment. In this article, I'll share 8 top tips to create a successful employee online training orientation program, so that you will be able to create a solid foundation for a successful, long-term working relationship between your company and your newly hired staff.
- Set the goals of the online training orientation program beforehand.
It may sound obvious, but having clear objectives is an important determinant for the success of your online training orientation program. Clearly outlining your learning goals before you begin developing your online training program will help you easily determine how these goals will be met. Avoid vague eLearning objectives, and instead try to focus on action; what do you want your newly hired staff to be able to do after they complete their online training course? Inform them about company’s policies, culture, and vision, concentrate on their primary duties for the next few months, and provide them with the information and resources they will need to effectively do their jobs. Connecting them with their colleagues and supervisors is also essential, so make sure that you have included your key staff’s contact details. Finally, make new starters feel welcome; while setting them off in the right direction, keep your tone professional, but friendly. - Keep the information brief and to the point.
Unnecessary information, abstract jargon, complicated graphs, and long sentences will only confuse your new employees. Communicate the information you want to convey as pointedly as possible by using simple language, short sentences, and bullets for learning objectives and key points. Furthermore, consider breaking your eLearning content up into smaller modules, so that your new employees can stay focused and easily find information when they need it. Chunking can be tremendously facilitated by an effective navigation system which includes submenus; just be careful not to add too many of the latter. Finally, always start each module with a clear objective, and provide your new hires with tools and resources that will help them successfully complete each section and meet the training objectives. - Give your employees direct acces to online resources.
Don’t expect your new employees to search for references and resources on the web. Ensure that you have included all the useful links in your employees online training orientation program so that you will enable new starters to have direct access to information related to the company’s processes and practices exactly when they need it. - Increase the flexibility of your online training orientation program.
By making your online training orientation program accessible from all mobile devices, you can help your new employees complete their online training orientation course at the time and place it is more convenient for them. Offering your newly hired staff the option to complete the online training orientation course at their own pace will significantly enhance their overall eLearning experience. - Don't overwhelm your new employees with data.
Staying short and straightforward will help your newly hired staff understand their job duties and succeed in their online training orientation course, while avoiding information that is not immediately necessary. Throughout your employee online training orientation program keep in mind to stay focused on only pertinent information; new starters get easily overwhelmed, as this is normal for people who are trying to adapt themselves to a new environment, so remember to provide them only with relevant and necessary online training material. Data not really needed during your new employees’ first days at their new jobs should be avoided. Include only information that is both necessary and easily digestible. Furthermore, incorporate interactive elements into your employee online training orientation program, so that your new hires will become more engaged and interested. - Offer your employees variety.
Speaking of making your newly hired staff feel more engaged, an interesting blend of different tools and resources not only will add value to your employee online training orientation program, but also will significantly increase your new starters’ engagement levels. Reduce the monotony with respect to how information is presented by integrating different kinds of media into your online training program, such as videos, audio elements, animations, and eLearning games that will trigger your new employees’ interest and attention. Furthermore, consider blending your online training course with some face to face events, for instance a mentoring session, to personalize the overall impact of your employees' online training orientation experience. - Measure the success of your employee online training orientation program.
Measuring the success of your employee online training orientation program will allow you to keep it updated, make improvements, and determine whether it was indeed successful. There are several ways to evaluate your online training orientation program, but the most effective way is, of course, soliciting immediate feedback. As soon as your employees finish their online training, ask them to complete surveys and inform you about which parts of their orientation process they found most and least helpful, whether they found the information offered overwhelming or, worse, insufficient, and how they would rate their overall onboarding experience. Knowing what worked and what didn’t will allow you to determine which topic areas of your employees online training orientation program need additional coverage or modifications, so that you will be able to make the necessary improvements and ensure that your online training course will gradually get more and more updated and effective. - Keep in mind that employees orientation is an ongoing process.
More often than not, it is really difficult for your new employees to retain all the information you want to convey at once. Apart from doing your best to convey your online training material as effectively as possible by breaking it into chunks and delivering it through a variety of media, consider following up by contacting employees and their supervisors two or three months after your employee online training orientation program is over. Ask them about their online experience, as well as other elements they would like you to add, change, or boost. Employees orientation shouldn’t be treated as a single training session or event; it is an ongoing process that supports your newly hired stuff during their first months of the job, and needs to provide a variety of experiences that meet different needs at different stages.
Now that you know how to create a successful employee online training orientation program, you may be interested in learning how you can increase your employees’ engagement levels during their online training. Read the article Top 9 Reasons To Develop Custom eLearning That Engages Employees and find out how you can develop custom eLearning courses that make your online training immersive, interactive and engaging for every employee of your corporate learning audience.