All About Onboarding Training: In Conversation with Gitika Nagra

Commlab Podcast on Onboarding

0:08
Hello there. Welcome to the eLearning Champion Pod hosted by CommLab India, where we discuss the ins and outs of eLearning training trends and learning technologies that impact corporate training. Your success matters to us, and that's why we bring you what matters to you. I'm your host, Sherna, and today we are delving into the world of onboarding training, also known as new hire training and induction. Whether you're a seasoned pro or new to onboarding, this episode has insights tailored just for you to explore the significance of onboarding training, effective implementation strategies, best practices and share success stories on this podcast. I invite Gitika, our eLearning expert specialising in onboarding. Welcome, Gitika.

0:59
Thank you, Sherna. I'm excited to be here and discuss the power of effective onboarding.

1:06
Allow me to give our listeners a brief introduction. Gitika is the Manager, Learning Design, at CommLab India. With more than 10 years of instructional design expertise, she crafts interactive eLearning experiences, aligning strategies with organizational goals and collaborating with subject matter experts. She uses top authoring tools like Articulate, Captivate, Gnowbe, Vyond, and more to create diverse training modules.

She's skilled in establishing and maintaining high standards of quality, conducting thorough quality reviews, and staying updated with industry trends and development related to instructional design and training. Circling back to today's topic, I still remember my onboarding experience vividly. Onboarding is a critical aspect of employee development and organizational success. It sets the tone for a new hires experience, impacting their engagement, productivity, and overall satisfaction.

2:10
Gitika, how does onboarding training benefit both the organization and the new employee, and what role does it play in establishing a successful working relationship between the two?

2:25
The first impression an employee has about an organization is crucial. Employees make up their minds to stay or quit working for an organization within their first year with the company. Furthermore, research shows that about 4% of employees quit on their first day at work. It is also not surprising that employee onboarding is being viewed more seriously than ever before. Organisations can use onboarding to make new employees feel welcome and to get them excited, inspired about their roles and how those roles align with their organizational business goals. It helps new employees adapt to the new culture, learn their roles and responsibilities and start delivering quickly. This increased engagement should lower rates of employee turnover within the first year of employment.

To be more effective, however, onboarding training has to be sustainable, scalable, cost effective and easily deployable.

3:35
I agree that onboarding holds significance for both the organization and its employees.

However, do you believe it's really necessary to transition from a traditional learning method to eLearning?

3:49
Yes, of course, given the continuous advancements in technology, staying current is necessary. Organizations commonly face challenges with traditional onboarding methods and eLearning provides an effective solution. I have a few of them in my mind that I would like to discuss.

The first challenge is the inability to adjust to the time schedules. Navigating new hires through changes and adjusting to diverse schedules and traditional onboarding can lead to failure and disastrous effects on the organization. To avoid this, develop flexible eLearning programs using micro learning and interactive storytelling to train employees in company culture, work requirements, and essential skills.

The second challenge involves information overload. During the initial training days, traditional onboarding bombards new hires with information, risking overwhelm and low retention. eLearning modules offer continuous access, enabling employees to learn at their own pace and retain information effectively.

The third challenge is like lack of employee engagement. Traditional onboarding programs can bore employees, impacting the new hire company relationship, so prioritizing ongoing employee engagement is crucial throughout the onboarding process. eLearning provides an interactive learning experience. Employ various strategies such as microlearning, simulations and guided learning to engage and activate learners.

A poor onboarding program can inhibit workplace efficiency and set up new employees for failure.

To overcome these challenges and create a seamless learning experience for new employees, organizations have started shifting to eLearning for onboarding training.

The third challenge is the lack of employee engagement. Traditional onboarding programs can bore employees, impacting the new hire company relationship. Prioritizing ongoing employee engagement is crucial throughout the onboarding process. eLearning provides an interactive learning experience employee various strategies such as microlearning, simulation, and guided learning to engage and activate learning for employees. A poor onboarding program can inhibit workplace efficiencies and set up new employees for failure. To overcome these challenges and create a seamless straight learning experience for new employees, organisations have started shifting to elearning for onboarding training.

9:23
I found your insights on the challenges really helpful. Onboarding training helps to integrate new employees into the company, makes them understand the systems and procedures followed by the organization, and gives them a sense of belonging. I believe a clear understanding of these aspects is crucial for seamless learning. Many companies are adopting eLearning to enhance the onboarding experience. Are there any benefits of onboarding training that stand out, considering both the firm's perspective and that of the new employee?

10:03
Yes, Sherna. Onboarding training brings numerous benefits to both the organization and the new employee, fostering a positive and efficient integration process. Effective onboarding training is a boon for organizations, offering substantial savings in time and money. It plays a key role in reducing employee turnover and ensures operational efficiency, facilitating a smooth transition for new employees into their roles. Also, it is very important to remember proper onboarding training is a win for new employees. It makes them feel respected and valued, provides the necessary information, and establishes good communication, setting the stage for a smooth and confident start in the organization.

10:55
Now that's quite a lot of benefits. A quick question here. Are there effective onboarding strategies that ensure a seamless transition for new hires?

11:08
Yes, there are. Implementing onboarding strategies is really important because it helps new employees feel good about the company, sets the stage for them to fit in easily and gets them working well and happy faster. I would like to discuss five strategies in this regard.

The first strategy is video-based modules for brand presentation.

You can introduce new employees to your company’s core values and history through brief video modules. This efficient method not only shortens onboarding time but also sets expectations making employees productive faster.

The second strategy is blended learning for orientation. Clear employee orientation is vital to avoid confusion about roles and responsibilities. A blended learning approach combining ILT sessions to emphasize the importance and digital training for practical insights offers the best of both methods.

The third strategy is simulations for system awareness. New employees often face challenges in adapting to complex software systems. Using software simulation provides a risk free environment and also for hands on training, allowing them to gain practical experience without the fear of real-world consequences.

The 4th strategy is scenarios for role activation. Clear up any lingering doubts about your new employees’ roles by using a scenario-based eLearning modules. This method recreates the work environment with interactive characters and relatable backgrounds, providing an accurate visual representation that aligns new employees with their roles more effectively.

The 5th strategy is micromodules for critical support. Despite extensive training, new employees may face many challenges in the initial period. Enhance onboarding with microlearning modules for just-in-time support. These bite sized nuggets help employees quickly refresh their knowledge, reducing the learning curve and increasing efficiency.

Using eLearning for onboarding is a hassle-free and more efficient alternative than the traditional method. Just ensure that you hire an experienced elearning vendor to make sure the first eLearning course your employees. Make is memorable, right?

14:27
Interesting. At this point, I believe our listeners would really find some case studies quite valuable considering our global clientele that we've served for over 23 years.

Gitika, could you share some customer success stories highlighting the support that L&D teams have provided?

14:49
Sure. With over a decade of experience as a Learning Head, I have developed numerous onboarding training programs, customizing them to meet the specific needs of our customers. Today, I would like to highlight the three most impactful success stories to showcase our approaches, positive results, and effectiveness. One of our clients, a leading contract research organization, wanted to develop a comprehensive onboarding program for their new hires. What made it not so simple was the requirement for cutting down the time spent by new hires in the classroom without affecting the effectiveness of the training. And the fact that the client was in the process of going through a couple of major acquisitions in the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical industry made it just a bit more complicated.

The training lasted 5 days, with days 1-3 dedicated to general induction, covering various departments and navigating the LMS. This phase included 26 hours of ILT, and a mandatory eLearning course on the Prevention of Sexual Harassment. Days 4 and 5 focused on role-specific eLearning for Clinical, Laboratory and Development Services, totaling approximately 10 hours of ILT and six 45-minute eLearning courses.

17:00
Wow, nice. The solution?

17:03
What I provided was a blended onboarding approach combining classroom training with online resources. I developed ILT materials for onsite sessions, including PowerPoint presentations, facilitator guides, and participant manuals. Each ILT session featured Ice Breakers and group activities fostering interaction among new hires. The facilitator guides detailed course agenda, PowerPoint slides, instructor notes and end of chapter exercises and participant manuals contained student notes, exercises, reflection journals and handouts. For eLearning, role-specific courses on clinical data management tools were developed using Watch Try Do simulations in Articulate Storyline. The entire training included 21 learning hours, with 6.5 hours of eLearning and 14.5 hours of ILT. In total, 51 ILT session presentations, 7 eLearning courses, and five activity handouts were delivered.

The result was that the training received a positive response from learners.

The blended learning strategy reduced classroom time, offered a mix of in person and online training to suit various learning styles, and efficiently used technology for rapid upscaling creating a positive learning experience.

19:48
Wow, nice.

19:50
Another case study I would like to share today is about a customer who is a leading US research based biopharmaceutical company used to conduct monthly classroom sessions for onboarding new hires in development, operations, and clinical research. However, this traditional approach proved inefficient, draining both time and resources, lacking consistency in quality and only reaching a fraction of the employees. It was neither scalable nor trackable, resulting in unhappy and confused employees and high turnover.

They wanted a new employee training that fixed current issues. It needed to be short and interesting online courses less than 90 minutes long, covering the company's mission, values and other important contact points for people in DevOps and clinical research. It should provide the right information at the right time. We also wanted it to be creative and engaging, using different media elements. To address these issues, I tailored a solution by breaking down the content into 8 modules. Learners could start with the initial 2 modules and then access modules 3 to 8 in any order.

The course featured a bird's eye view on the campus, with eight buildings employing the LEAD strategy, allowing learners to click on any building or department to explore.

I incorporated infographics, short video clips, and gamification in the final assessment.

This approach transformed the onboarding experience into an engaging and enjoying variable learning journey, ultimately contributing to a significant reduction in employee turnover.

23:04
Interesting.

23:06
Let me wrap up this with a short case study. One of our clients, a leading global travel platform wanted us to redesign their new hire training curriculum to update, revise, and restructure their classroom and online training programs for new hires in different divisions such as sales, business development and customer success. The goal was to reduce the current 12 week training program to an 8 week self-paced one. The solution I provided was a highly interactive simulation-based eLearning curriculum with three learning parts for different divisions. An infographic of a road map was used at the beginning of each module to represent the three parts. I used simple click and reveal interactivities to invite learner participation.

Parts two and three also used Watch and Try simulations.

As a result of using this approach, I successfully reduced the 12 week program to an 8 week self-paced one, meeting the clients objectives and enhancing the onboarding process for new hires in sales, business development, and customer success.

25:05
I'm awed that our solutions are making a big difference for our customers in training new employees smoothly. Building on this success and your expertise, would you like to share any best practices with our listeners that could help them enhance their onboarding training programs?

25:18
Sure. Here is my list of three best practices that will make your onboarding training successful. Before I dive into these best practices, I would like to mention that online onboarding training is not rocket science. Rather, it's all about understanding the psychology of learning and implementing it in an online learning environment.

The first best practice to include is the human touch. Online training can be challenging, making new employees feel detached from the organization. Also the communication is very important.

Onboarding training is crucial for introducing company rules, policies and culture.

A blended approach combining online and classroom training allows new hires to ask questions and start on the right footing.

I would also like to discuss other ways to create a connect. We can start with a personalized video or audio welcome from the CEO or any video by the immediate boss using the new hires name.

For a warm touch, introduce the board of directors and other key employees via the portal.

Include a concise directory with departments and roles for emergency contacts.

27:04
Nice, interesting.

27:06
The second best practice is to provide short, continuous learning versus long, quick trainings. Avoid overwhelming your new hires with a rush to learn everything at once. Learning is an ongoing process. Absorbing too much information leads to less retention, be it in classroom or online. Foster a steady learning pace to maintain engagement and clarity. Keep it crisp, short, and targeted for a focused understanding of roles and responsibilities to prevent your new hires for from getting lost in a sea of information.

You can opt for short microlearning sessions instead of lengthy trainings, and you can also break content into easily digestible lessons and modules.

Keep training concise, focusing on need to know information with optional nice to know details.

And the last thing what you can do is you can offer just in time support throughout the year for ongoing trainings, revisit and reviews.

The third best practice is to take individual training styles and learning needs into consideration.

In learning, everyone is unique. To make learning effective, individuals need the freedom to explore their environment in a way that aligns with their unique learning styles.

Customize online training for individual needs.

Incorporate elements for kinesthetic audio and visual learners.

Keep engagement high by utilizing videos, audio recordings, animations, eLearning games and images.

28:59
The three best practices were really nice. Thank you so much for curating these insights for our listeners diving into the transformative journey of onboarding. Together we've covered a lot, from the basics of onboarding to how to make it work. Whether you're starting a new job or helping others settle in, we hope our listeners find some useful tips from today's podcast. A big thanks to our expert Gitika for all the insights.

29:28
Thank you, Sherna, it's been a pleasure being here.

29:32
Thank you so much. In fact, dear listeners, feel free to head out to our website, www.comlabindia.com where you can browse the onboarding training section, watch the related videos, or use the Contact Us form on the top right to reach out to us. That's a wrap on our talk about the power of onboarding, training, understanding, implementing, and succeeding.

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Thank you again for tuning in to the eLearning Champion Pod. Until next time, happy onboarding.