Maximise learning by starting during the recruitment process
During the recruitment process and immediately following their successful employment, candidates are in an engaged and highly receptive state. When it comes to induction and ongoing training, these characteristics provide the perfect environment for you – the employer – to capitalise on effective online learning.
90% of businesses believe that their employees make the decision to stay at a company long-term within the first six months of employment, which shows that first impressions really do count. Reasons for such decisions can simply be due to the business not being the right ‘fit’ for the employee but more often than not it’s due an employee not feeling supported within their role or feeling as though they there isn’t any scope for progression.
This can easily be put right with supportive training which supplies the candidate with a clear idea of the ways that their role contributes to the company’s success, and demonstrates the career development opportunities available to them.
The ‘self-directed’ candidate
Let’s start during the recruitment process. The majority of candidates have applied because the job sounds interesting, and they want to work for the company. This ‘want’ is demonstrated by the applicant making every effort to present themselves as the perfect candidate for the role. It starts before they even apply by tailoring their CV to the specifics from the job description, scouring your company’s website and even in the finer details such as the all-important decision of, “What am I going to wear at the interview?”
At this stage in the recruitment cycle, candidates are keen to learn as much as possible about a company prior to their interview date. This is the ideal time to provide these hopeful candidates the resources they need to learn about the business, its values, goals and culture.
This puts learning in the candidates own hands for a while and also gives the applicant the opportunity to determine if they will flourish in this setting by finding out if the goals and beliefs of the company are in line with their own.
Better still, enabling potential employees to do their homework doesn’t have to be an expensive, ongoing cost. There’s no need for printed handbooks (boring!) or hierarchical charts (even more boring!) when you can provide something interactive and engaging which can be delivered again and again.
Interview your front-runners
This brings us to the interview stage. By this point, you have saved a considerable amount of time by determining which candidates have the drive to succeed. Plus, by giving job applicants the company’s background information ahead of time this allows you - a busy employer – to cut to the chase in an interview. Prospective employees have all been given a level playing field with the same information, which allows you to select the front-runners. During the interview you can find out who has connected with the learning module and used it as a valuable opportunity to really ace the interview and demonstrate how they can contribute towards the company’s goals and values.
By choosing the right delivery tool you can also look behind the scenes and see who view the information, how often they looked and what they interacted with. I useful insight into how they might work if selected.
It’s really frustrating for both employees and business owners when a company and employee respectively, do not meet initial expectations. By giving employees the opportunity to showcase that they are willing to work and willing to learn prior to being hired, this enables you to build your business with a strong team at its helm. On the other hand, it also gives employees the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the company and the culture behind it, which also allows the employee to make an informed decision about their next career move. It’s a win-win for both parties.
Finding someone ‘Great’
Employing ‘great people’ is something that Kip Tindell has discussed in detail and the ways that great people can have a huge impact on a business.
“One great person is equal to three good people in terms of output, ability, trust and loyalty. And, one good person is equal to three average people. How many average people are you employing?"
It’s crucial to place the importance on finding great people, rather than just an employee to fill a vacancy. ‘Great’ candidates are easier to find by using this method of pre-employment training. If they have the same want to learn about the company and all of the practices behind it, and still feel as though they are a great fit, spotting like-minded candidates will be easy.
Great candidates will be empowered through their keenness to learn about your company, its ethos, vision and processes. Following employment and effective training, great people will use new knowledge to their advantage and will have the ability to fill numerous roles and manage a workload previously fulfilled by several good or average employees. Staff members that embrace training opportunities will also show greater levels of loyalty and job satisfaction through career progression.
Keep it up
You’ve got your ‘great’ employee who is ready to start and is equipped to start their new role as soon as they arrive. So, what next? Even if new employees are fulfilling a role which should be familiar to them, any new job is a new experience, a new environment, a new team and perhaps some new processes.
New employees lack the experience of the specific tasks, processes, procedure and habits of the new business to perform at the same level as existing employees.
But consider where this new employee is, they are in alert self-motivated state which makes them ideal for learning quickly. By providing them with learning resources they will catch up faster than ever before and have the opportunity to outperform the existing staff.
Get it right from the start...
By employing a successful training model right from the start, your new employees will set off on the right foot with all of the information they need. Throughout the recruitment process, you should consider how well candidates have learned about and adapted to your business if they don’t show a willingness to accept new knowledge from the start, it’s unlikely that further training opportunities will be easily adopted.