Training New Employees

The first day for a new member should be a day where they get to know the people they will be working with, where the restrooms are, where they get medicine if they get a headache, at what time does everyone goes for lunch etc.

The first day should always be for observing and the training should start on the second day. Many people go home on their first day either with a bad migraine or a backache which is undoubtedly the result of nervousness and tension.

You will see multiple philosophies on how a new member should be trained and now you must be thinking what will be my role being Project Manager? To answer that I will give you examples #1 The wrong Way of training a new employee and #2 The way I did it (worked well in the IT/Fintech industry)

The most common mistake that many companies do is making the person who is leaving the job train the new employee. Which is the #1 approach. Let’s dive into it.

#1 The Wrong Way:

Let me give an example, suppose a company does a bi-yearly review of its employees and find out some of the employees had been below-average since the past two reviews as well. Their managers are asked to let them go and hire new more capable employees. (Simple and effective procedure so far) now the twist, when the employees are told that they will be replaced and this will be their last month working with the company that is when the resentment begins. Now for an employee who’s already being and can see its replacements being interviews is then told to “TRAIN” the replacement for the job they had. I’m sure you all can already see how flawed the philosophy is by now, because the moment the employee is told they are being let go and now they have to serve a notice period of 30 days or so (whatever company has in its rules) after that moment the employee has the attitude of “I DON’T GIVE A DAMN TO WHAT HAPPENS TO THIS COMPANY ANYMORE”

Now two issues with this approach:

#1 You asked someone who you think is below average to train your new employee. When you did that, they will only pass their incompetence and bad habits to the new employee. #2? Their training will be casual and incomplete because they don’t even care anymore.

Now being a project manager, you will have to deal with this new employee and you will start seeing the habits of the person which you have let go and the moment you question the person they will say this is what they were told during all the KT(Knowledge Transfer) sessions they had with the previous employee hence repetition of the behavior the company wanted to get rid of. This is where you step in with the second approach.

P.S Before jumping in you might ask WHAT IF the employee is leaving on good terms and is not being let go? The point is anyone who resigns or is being let go will never have the level of enthusiasm to give the knowledge to someone who is filling their shoes neither they want someone to be great at the job they used to have (Simple Psychology)

#2 The Right Way (Work Manual)

Put together a desk manual which describes the basic duties that are required for each role that you are hiring. If you’re in IT suppose then make the guide to use the Tools you are using, any trackers which are being used by the company, any information on the project that the person will be working on, all links to the codes of all repositories etc.

I understand not all instructions can be written so any tutorials and any KT sessions which were done before can be added with the manuals to help the employee understand the project better.

Keep Note: Manuals work until they are kept current. If they’re not then they are worthless and a waste of time.

Extra Point: Make sure to keep checking on the new employee to make sure they feel at ease and involve them in all activities and lunches being done by the team so they feel welcomed and encouraged to learn and be a part of the new team.

Toodaloo ????