Good morning,

I am currently researching companies experience and success with developing new hires, as we here at Comcast are looking to enhance our current program. I am hoping someone can connect with me to discuss best practices and share ideas as we move forward with our program revamp. Any insight you can share is much appreciated.

Thank you in advance,
Meg Bennett
Comcast University

Hi Meg,

The answer to your question really depends on what you're trying to do. What are the expectations, limitations, success criteria, and such?

A few years back, I ran an onboarding program for a large tech support shop, and my primary goal was to produce a "Job Ready" technician. The program consisted of 3 weeks of fire hose style product learning coupled with training on using the on-the-job tools (software apps). Most of the 3 weeks was spent diagnosing and repairing hardware. I was measured by the technicians performance 30, 60, and 90 days out of training.

Another onboarding program I launched for a large IT shop focused on company assimilation and HR & learning tools. This was a 4-6 hour session designed to help new hires transition into the company. The specific segment the individual was going to work for was responsible for the skills training for the actual job function, and this was due to the vast # of different job families and small amount of hiring. Sometimes we would have 20 new hires in a room, but no more than 2 of them had the same job function.

Thomas.

Thomas, thanks for your reply. I don't know that we know much beyond the fact that we want to improve our program. Being a large organization, who has always been very decentralized in the past, it has been difficult for us to have measures and commonalities throughout the organization. We now have an opportunity to more globally approach this effort and are looking for other HR or Training professionals to share their best practices and success stories in training new hires. And while my company is a service organization, I welcome any company to share their ideas. Some specific types of questions I might ask include:

1. How long is your program?
2. If you are a geographically disperse organization, do you bring all new hires to a central location or do you bring them based on job level?
3. What types of topics do you cover?
4. What success have you had in training people in this fashion?
5. Do you have any specific non-traditional training methods that have been successful for you?
6. Do you have an outline you would be willing share with me?

Thanks in advance for anyone's help!
Regards,
Meg Bennett

Start with the goals of your business and the goals your business has for keeping employees. I'm assuming you'd like employees to feel valued from the get go so that they stay with your company. I'm assuming a basic desire for any onboarding program is to reduce attrition. Why not start with that?

Then, when you're ready, there are some fabulous consultants out there (I am NOT referring to myself) who are well equipped to help you through this type of initiative.

quote:

1. How long is your program?
2. If you are a geographically disperse organization, do you bring all new hires to a central location or do you bring them based on job level?
3. What types of topics do you cover?
4. What success have you had in training people in this fashion?
5. Do you have any specific non-traditional training methods that have been successful for you?
6. Do you have an outline you would be willing share with me?

• 1. Start by identifying what you want to cover, then recommend a length based on what the business wants to accomplish.
  
• 2. For geographically disperse, I choose a train the trainer model when possible. When I didn't have critical mass anywhere (ie: one tech here, two techs there), I've used virtualized training with success.
  
• 3. Depends on if you're trying to bridge a skill gap, or a company assimilation gap (or maybe both?)
  
• 4. Great success with some programs, and 'not so great' success with others. The sucessful ones always started with a clear needs assessment, in which success was clearly outlined.
  
• 5. One method I used was online CBT style training coupled with product certification exam, and back by operational metrics to enforce the skills. If a tech went on a call for a product he wasn't 'certified' in, there were financial consequesces.
  
• 6. Unfortunately, I don't have an outline as I'm now in the certification space and haven't implemented an onboarding program in a while.
  

I hope this helps,
Thomas.