How to make your team +30% more productive??

And a sneak peek at a new book written by our CMO.

Welcome to The Manual Weekly – LI Edition, the can’t-miss newsletter for business leaders. You’ll find snackable bits of news highlighting emerging trends, actionable resources, and proven best practices that can help take your business to the next level.

This week’s must-reads:

• How to improve a process (just like your favorite dish).
• A preview of your kid’s first business book (written by our CMO).
• Tracking customized training paths during onboarding.?
• And how to ensure your team recharges during their PTO.

Template of the week: How To Improve a Process

Improving a process is a lot like perfecting your fave recipe — it takes time, tweaks, and a little trial and error to get it just right. And here’s a spicy stat: implementing process improvements can boost productivity by 30-50%.

Here’s how to improve your processes, step by step:

• Identify key areas. Pinpoint the processes that have the biggest impact on customer satisfaction and bottom line. What’s the dish you want to perfect?
• Gather feedback. Get your team and customers involved — their insights can uncover pain points and opportunities you might not have noticed.
• Execute improvements. Now that you know where to focus, take action. Collaborate with department leaders to refine the process.

?? Want to create a recipe for success? The How To Improve a Process Template provides a detailed blueprint (from prioritization to timing) to help you continuously up your process game.

Check out our entire template archive of free and customizable policy, process, and role starters. New to Trainual? Get a demo.

Introducing Sprocesses: How we can all learn from a hamster.

Raising a little entrepreneur? Or maybe you just need a fresh take on delegation from a hamster? That's why we wrote "Sprocesses," a children's book that makes delegating fun! Teri the hamster teaches kids (and maybe even you!) about systems and processes — or what we like to call "Sprocesses" — in an adorable new way.?

Follow Teri as she learns...

• The importance of writing down steps (the how-tos for to-dos).
• How to delegate! As Teri says, "To grow, you must let go."
• And planning ahead with processes.??

There's a little bit of Teri in each of us at Trainual: making ideas happen, going above and beyond, and trusting the process along the way.??

"Sprocesses" is extra special because it was written by our CMO, Jonathan Ronzio, for his own son. Teri’s adventures share valuable lessons for kids and adults alike, and remind us all to "take control of the ladder we climb."

?? Be the first to get your hands on the book —?launching Jan 28th!?

?Onboarding in 2025? Here's how to ramp up new hires.

Picture this: It’s your first day at your dream job, and you skip into your new office (or power up your shiny new laptop) and feel unstoppable. You grab a coffee, meet a few coworkers, and log into Trainual — jazzed to dive into your new company, responsibilities, and best practices for crushing it. But then you do a double-take. Nearly a hundred hours of training!? ????*Cue the panic.

Yikes. That’s not the first impression I want to give.

Here’s what’ll help: You can customize the flow, sequence, and pace of learning in Trainual by building training paths.?

How do training paths help me onboard?

When you leverage training paths, you can:

• Prevent information overload by pacing training over time and adding breaks.
• Track progress to ensure employees are starting strong.
• Get new hires ramped up efficiently so they’re adding value faster.
• Set clear milestones to align expectations.
• Help employees retain what they learn with dedicated time to practice and apply it.

??Tip: You can now pick a calendar state date to schedule each training section. Head to anyone’s profile to give it a try!

?Training paths are exclusive to the Trainual+ feature suite that includes training in other languages, unlimited e-signatures, all-time version history, hosted videos (coming soon!), and more. Starting at $49/mo.

??? Learn more tips for customizing training paths.?

How to help your team recharge on PTO

You want employees to truly?enjoy their PTO this year — not be stuck handling emails while sipping mimosas on the beach! But let's face it: If there isn't proper backfill, things can fall like a ton of bricks when people take off. Plus, if your crew can’t unplug, they won’t return fully recharged and ready to work productively.

?Here’s how to make it all work!

• Map out PTO. Encourage team members to submit PTO requests early. For a head start, check?this article,?which outlines the most requested PTO days.
• Document key workflows. To avoid PTO chaos, ensure processes are documented so others can jump in and keep things flowing smoothly.
• Cross-train like a boss. Don’t just document — train! Trainual’s video content types allow you to record comprehensive training videos so someone can step into your role like a pro — just like you never left.

We know PTO is sacred, and we’re here to help protect it. With over a dozen new features in 2024 — including better work management and upgraded training tools — you can keep things running smoothly while your team takes the time they deserve to recharge.