I’ve had many different types of jobs and gone through several different types of trainings. The best trainings I received were very hands on. They usually included a period of job shadowing with a clear checklist for us both to go through and a person who I could clearly go to to ask questions after the job shadowing period was over. The worst trainings I’ve had were focused on learning job knowledge through a printed manual or computer program by simply reading and completing required training. This information was important for the job, but difficult to absorb at such a fast pace and with such little context of the hands on job experience.
When I read the suggestion in “Your New Hires Won’t Succeed Unless You Onboard Them Properly” for onboarding to last up to a year, I was initially surprised. This is much longer than any onboarding I have ever received. However, I realized that my best onboarding experiences lasted several months, with clear, scheduled check-ins and learning spaced out between job shadowing and hands-on experience. If I were to be in charge of designing an onboarding program, I think this structure would be much more efficient, especially for more complex positions that require lots of technical knowledge or the use of multiple skills.
One of the benefits of this structure that isn’t really discussed in the article is that having training spread out is also more inclusive for employees with different learning styles and paces. This gives a lot more room to adapt teaching and learning styles to be more efficient and effective for the people involved in training. However, I agree that the basic structure of good onboarding should absolutely include checklists, check ins, and an accessible peer to keep training focused and productive.
