Employee Onboarding with eLearning:
Once upon a time, it was normal for a new employee to take some time to learn the ropes when first hired. In fact, it could take a couple of months for them to really get up to speed. Today, that’s not possible. New hires need to hit the ground running and come to grips not only with their responsibilities, but with the ins and outs of the business itself in as short a time as possible. Employee onboarding with eLearning makes this process much simpler.
Yes, you’ll need to provide new hires with training, and that training will need to vary depending on the employee’s position and their responsibilities. However, eLearning can be utilized for all situations. You’ll need to ensure that your LMS offers the right modules, but this method offers time savings, monetary savings, and many other benefits.
Time Savings
When it comes to initial new hire training, eLearning offers a great many advantages, but the time savings are perhaps the most important. On the job training is the slowest, least beneficial option, and shouldn’t even be considered. Most companies have moved from OJT to paper-based training, but even this can be lengthy and time consuming. That doesn’t even touch on the fact that most new hires retain very little of what they learn during a paper-based training and orientation process.
On the other hand, eLearning can be immensely successful here. It can shorten the training time by a significant amount, and can ensure that information retention is maximized, particularly if you’re able to integrate gamification, mobile access and other techniques into your system.
Brand & Cultural Awareness
New hires need to be indoctrinated with company values, your mission, your ethics and your culture. It can take a very long time for this to occur through “natural processes”. Instead, you can use eLearning to inculcate your new hires and get them excited about the business, while also introducing them to your company’s culture and brand. Your LMS is the key to this, but it’s not difficult to create modules designed specifically to acquaint new hires with what they need to know about their new employer, the company’s history, what it stands for and more.
Demonstrating Responsibilities and Duties
Don’t think that eLearning is limited to just introducing new hires to your company’s brand and culture, or to the business as a whole. It can also be used to introduce them to their responsibilities and the duties of their new position. This can be done in a number of ways, but one of the best options is through video or animation. Most humans don’t learn by reading – they simply don’t retain enough. Learning by hearing also results in very little retention. Most people learn the best by seeing it done and then by doing it, and animation/video can provide exactly the tools needed. It can also increase engagement during the demonstration process. Just think of how much more engaging it is to watch a video rather than read a page of dry, academic text.
Ongoing Support
One of the best things about using eLearning for employee onboarding purposes is the fact that your new hires can refer back to videos, animation, text and other information on an as-needed basis right through their desktop or even their smartphone. That definitely trumps having to trek down to HR to ask a question, or rifle through dusty manuals looking for an answer to questions about their position.
When it comes to onboarding, eLearning is a natural fit and a powerful tool for both employee and business success.
Suggested Reading
- http://www.efrontlearning.net/blog/2016/01/how-to-use-elearning-for-employee-onboarding.html
- https://www.docebo.com/2015/12/16/what-best-elearning-courses-employee-onboarding-have-in-common/