How to… Create your new starter induction – part 1

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April 21, 2017

In this series of blog posts we will be helping you plan, design and prepare to deliver your own new starter company induction as part of the onboarding journey all new employees should experience. Or if you already have one, this information can be used to check your induction is covering everything your new starters need.

So whether you have no induction for your new starters and want to create one, or have something in place that you want to improve upon, you want your new starters to get the best possible experience when joining your company and we want to help you with that.

The assumption here is that you have people in your business capable of managing the project to completion and able to take this project on, and trainer/s who can design and deliver training material. You will also need buy-in from the senior leadership team who want to see changes within the business that support an induction programme to improve the onboarding experience. This support will enable you to make decisions, allocate additional budget and move your project towards completion.

When considering a formalised induction for new starters who join your company, three elements will support the successful implementation:

A clear purpose – understand what you want and need, to achieve a great induction experience.

Preparation – get everything you need in place from tools, skills and experience.

A great team – identify the people & resources that can help you deliver your goal.

Spending time researching & preparing will serve you well throughout the project.

First things first:

Time for some research…Who will be required to attend the induction?

So who gets to attend the induction?

Our view is that everyone, whatever their role or position in the company, when they join they attend the induction (yes whether it’s a new M.D. administrator, telesales person or department head). This sets a precedent that says the induction is important and not just a nice to have i.e. your induction serves the purpose it is designed for: to prepare people to join your business and learn about its culture, values and mission before they start their role. So having buy-in from the senior leadership team means there are no exceptions.

What’s the recruitment experience, what are the numbers and what’s missing?

Spend some time working with the people who manage your recruitment and onboarding processes, either your HR department or Heads of Department. Look at recruitment numbers over the last six to twelve months, which departments need additional people or replacements in that time and which departments have high attrition. How many leave within the first 3-6 months and if you have access to the information, why people leave?

Useful tip: put the feedback & ideas you get into sections of importance for your induction.

Section 1

Info that helps all new starters

Section 2

Info that is nice to have, not need to have

Section 3

Job specific info that may need to be covered by managers

Section 4

If money was not an issue

Discuss with department managers their experiences over the first 3-6 months for their new starters. What do they spend time having to do to get them up to speed? What content would they expect in an induction that would benefit all new starters?

Then discuss with a cross section of employees about their new starter experiences: what went well, what would be even better and why, what information would have helped them prepare for their role and what experiences can they share from other companies that they found useful. You can do this with an anonymous survey, 1:1 meetings, online forums or group discussions, whatever ensures you get the quality feedback you need.

You should now have some great information to start building your new induction which then allows you to identify the budget & timescales of the project. We will look at budgets in more detail later. While doing this research you may also uncover additional feedback that can be used to improve job descriptions, job adverts, recruitment processes and improvements to communication within the business that help other departments and the on-boarding experience.

In blog two we will look at what we do with the feedback gathered and decide what is a ‘need to have’ and what is ‘nice to have’ included in our induction.

If you’re thinking about putting a new starter induction together, and need support and resources to get it done, why not get in touch today and talk to us about your ideas.

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Running a small business on your own means very little time to think about training, both individual and staff development. Brenell helped me enormously with one-to-one coaching sessions, building on my strengths and helping me improve my weaknesses. Brenell also implemented training for all of our 17 members of staff, the office is closely-knit and their bespoke training options worked very well. They have helped improved everyone’s confidence, including building in a much more efficient management structure. This, very quickly, made for a much more productive office with staff feeling much happier and keen to improve in every way. I will continue to seek Brenell’s help in the future and would highly-recommend their consultancy. They have always been very approachable, creative in their outlook and supportive, without being patronising.

Tracy Robertson

Director
Property Concept

Brenell did a fantastic job of creating a fully-functional induction that included a week in-house training, plus time on site doing practical activities and a 5-week on the job sign off process with buddy system ending in a final assessment day. They created a full set of trainer notes, support material and preparation guides, with slides and a detailed workbook for all new starters. Brenell worked with all departments, getting to know our business, even going on-site with our engineers. They transferred that into a professional induction, supporting the delivery of the first few inductions and helping our team prepare to take it over to run it in-house. The induction programme far exceeded our expectations and we will happily recommend Brenell’s services to anyone.

Teresa Bristol

Operations Director
Lightsource Renewable Services

We initially brought Brenell Training in to support our Retail Roadshow – a 6-week project to deliver product updates and refresh knowledge on Sky+HD, Sky content and Broadband & Talk to all our Sky salespeople. They really knew their stuff and had researched our business to really be able to relate to our salespeople. Since then we use Brenell on a monthly basis to design, create and deliver some of our core training. Using Brenell over the last 2 years has enabled us to expand Sky’s training to all our partners and retailers and ensured salespeople across the UK understand all of Sky’s products and how to sell them effectively. Brenell have been integral to our growth over the last 2 years and we will continue to call upon them to support our business and training programmes. We highly recommend their services to anyone – they deliver on time and are flexible in their approach, no job has been too small or too big for Brenell and we thank them for making our job easier.

Damon White

Training Controller
Sky Marketing Operations Team

Brenell and their team have a wealth of knowledge and experience and they have always delivered training solutions which have had a direct impact on sales – as well as motivation and skills development – increasing revenue and giving us a return on our investment. We have recommended their services to our own customers and partners – if your business is looking to develop its people then you should definitely consider Brenell Training. They always deliver more than what we expect and make training fun and enjoyable.

Debbie Young

Network Director
GK Telecom

I’m glad I acted on a recommendation to work with Brenell, as Gareth has been fantastic to work with, always feeling like one of the team and never a supplier. His work drive is relentless, and his high standards have resulted in fantastic training programs. Gareth has worked on multiple intense projects at NOW TV and he has always risen to the challenge and delivered exceptional results on the training design and delivery. Over and above his work ethic, Gareth has a fantastic down-to-earth and personable style that means he gets on great with stakeholders and colleagues alike. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Gareth’s training design and delivery skills and whenever we need to get some external support, he’s the first man I’d grab every time!

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Learning & Development Controller
NOWTV