Evaluating Onboarding
To start off, it is important for L&D professionals to first assess their organization’s current standing. It is also important to determine the total budget allocated toward L&D initiatives for the year. Once that is determined, the last step is to identify the varied eLearning options toward which these budgets can be allocated. One must note that since traditional training doesn’t seem to be making a comeback just yet, L&D teams are left with the sole option of eLearning. Once all stakeholders understand and accept this, it is time to look into the more complex aspects of switching to eLearning.
L&D teams must determine the type of eLearning courses, the type of development partner, and finally, the development timelines. All of this falls under the evaluation process and is a must before planning an eLearning initiative.
Many look at traditional onboarding as a simple meet-and-greet activity. They consider onboarding as a gesture to ease new employees into their workplace by introducing them to immediate teammates and other people, at the very most. Even though a part of this is true, it is still an extremely limited view of onboarding. As a result, when preparing for onboarding in 2021, keep in mind that there is a lot more to it than just skimming the surface.
2021’s onboarding process includes:
- Maximizing onboarding activities by making it an intensive practice but minimizing training expenditure at the same time;
- Hiring wisely, but ensuring they are brought to speed with efficiency;
- Switching to onboarding webinars instead of seminars;
- Placing a strong emphasis on designing compliance training to match the work-from-home policy; and,
- Introducing new joiners to teammates and peers remotely.
2021’s onboarding game is about maximizing efficiency. L&D departments must focus on identifying opportunities to cut costs but maximizing training at the same time; eLearning is of great assistance in this case. However, evaluating the right eLearning vendor, format, and workflow of training could be a slight challenge alongside securing opportunities and introducing new employees to their remote teammates.
Optimizing Onboarding
What is optimizing really? Optimizing in its true sense is the ability to improve present actions by studying and assessing the outcomes of previous actions. In simple, it starts by analyzing a process, determining areas of improvement, re-deploying, and studying the latest results for additional areas of improvement. Throughout the cycle of this process, costs must decrease while outputs increase, which results in optimum conditions.
The term "optimizing" is very important for L&D professionals in 2021. The pandemic has thrown traditional practices out of favor. And if we consider changing our current training practices, we are left with the sole option of switching from traditional training to eLearning. Moreover, for those who have already implemented eLearning, the only way forward is to optimize your onboarding.
So how does the act of optimizing fit in with onboarding?
Talks about optimized onboarding in 2021 revolve around:
- Optimizing onboarding for employees who are remotely located, maybe even across the globe;
- Maximizing retention by conveying a clear message outlining the future plans to new remote employees;
- Optimizing for the cost of efforts and money because eLearning is not completely free of those costs—efforts and finances still are a part of eLearning; and,
- Collecting remote assessments and feedbacks to plan for better onboarding.
Optimized onboarding in 2021 revolves around remote employees and their remote training needs while also keeping a track of and spending L&D budgets wisely.
Blending Onboarding
Although blending the two aspects of onboarding, traditional and eLearning, is the best option, it cannot be done right now. However, blended onboarding is not to be forgotten. As things return to normal, L&D teams will have to look into blending the two formats together as it works best that way.
Blending onboarding is fairly easy, this includes:
- Splitting targeted portions into classroom-based activities and on-the-job training (OJT) and the rest into eLearning;
- Conducting assessments over the LMS as a follow-up to a regular classroom initiative;
- Providing digital certifications;
- Theoretical training on an LMS combined with practical OJT; and,
- Making onboarding training accessible to employees for the entirety of their tenure.
It is important to note, though blending onboarding immediately is not practical, blending onboarding training in the future is the answer to your new employee training woes. As a result, the ability to combine them in a way that makes sense and delivers results is paramount to your training and development success.