Onboarding re-design
The training initiative began when a new line of business (LOB) was acquired. Part of adopting the LOB into the business was to learn job roles, workflows and training/onboarding practices. I was brought in to lead the creation of training systems and onboarding systems for the LOB.
The problem: Training and onboarding initiatives were unclear and unsuccessful to performance goals. The LOB had a patchwork approach to learning development, which resulted in many different approaches to training and inconsistent results. Trainers were often creating their own trainings and training employees on their own. Each trainer had their own approach to the role and workflows they were training on. During analysis, leadership emphasized that many common workflow topics had to be re-trained regularly due to employee performance and lack of application of training to on-the-job processes. The current state of new hire performance, retention rates and training materials did not meet our company standard. The goal was to work with leadership, SMEs, trainers and Stakeholders to create both onboarding and training systems to align the LOB to company standards.
This was a massive initiative that required heavy analysis, planning and project management. LOB stakeholders and trainers were not initially bought into changes. Change management and stakeholder buy-in was key to the success of this initiative.
My role: I was the head ID brought in to analyze the performance issues, build relationships with SMEs and stakeholders, pitch onboarding and training changes, create a multi-tier plan for onboarding changes and design and develop all new training and onboarding materials with associate IDs. This was a leadership intensive role that required high levels of communication, innovation, problem solving and relationship building. Each step of the larger initiative is broken down below.
End results: A new 8 week onboarding program was created for new hires. The program used a multi-modality approach, including elearning, ILT training, coaching, role play, and practical application. Facilitators went through 2 weeks of training materials. Upon passing the two weeks of training, new hires went into 6 weeks of job practice and coaching with training sessions interspersed. New hire performance was tracked throughout the onboarding process and reported to leadership.
The new onboarding program created a consistent and practical approach to onboarding. Facilitators were uniform in training and all new hires were given an equal onboarding experience. Data on new hire performance was collected and reported to show a direct correlation between consistent onboarding practices and new hire performance. Training consisted of training on both important workflow and role information and soft skills including professional communication, handling conflict, and handling feedback. Each training session had practical performance objectives and hands-on application and knowledge checks.
Additionally, I onboarded the leaders and stakeholders into an ID process for future training sessions, including submitting intakes, participating in needs assessments and providing feedback on training materials prior to the go live date.
Analysis
The first step in this initiative was to analyze the current state of onboarding and training. My analysis included:
1. Leadership meetings: I met with key stakeholders to get to know the business and to hear about the current state of employee performance. From these meetings, I gained knowledge of current pain points in employee workflows and performance that could be addressed during onboarding and training.
2. SME meetings: Meeting with SMEs and facilitators to learn various roles and common workflow processes. Used this time to learn the roles we would be onboarding and training and to understand the technical parts of the job.
3. Onboarding/training material review: I conducted research and a thorough review of the current onboarding process. This included reviewing all current materials, watching training training recordings, and shadowing employees on-the-job.
Based on the meetings, training/job shadowing and research, I created an onboarding plan to revitalize and revamp onboarding. The plan included creating 8 weeks of consistent onboarding practices to effectively train employees to meet performance metrics on-the-job. I also, created a training workflow so that all new training would go through the ADDIE model to guaruntee success of training to performance goals.
The pitch
To end the analysis phase, I created a pitch to present to all LOB leaders, stakeholders and facilitators. The goal of the pitch was to present my analysis findings and to get buy-in from all leaders on the training initiative.
The pitch: The pitch included changes to the training process, changes to onboarding and project details on the revamp of new hire training. Stakeholders were asked to give feedback at the end and agree to commit to feedback cycles and the larger project timeline.
With the approval of the pitch, the initiative went into a 3-part design phase. Please note: This is a mockup sample of a pitch deck. The original pitch deck cannot be used due to company privacy policies. This shows a sample of what may be included in a pitch deck.
The best part of the pitch was the buy-in from key leaders. Change management was a key part of this initiative. Pitching the changes created an open approach to the proposed changes. Leadership could give input and feedback and were included on all larger structure changes. The pitch highlighted the benefits to employee performance the new onboarding approach would have, which was key to getting leadership buy-in. This was a core part of relationship building. The interviews and meetings had laid the groundwork, but creating a plan that included the key issues leadership saw and cared about showed a collaborative approach to the changes, which made LOB leadership more open to the process. In simpler terms, it showed leaders that I cared about the LOB and the job roles we were training and that I was creating an onboarding program to help employees succeed. Learning about the business and the job roles and showing genuine interest in them was the key to collaboration.
Design phases
The design phase took place in two ways.
1. I completed an overall design plan for the entire initiative. This design document was in the form of an updated new hire onboarding agenda. The agenda included each new training to be created along with information on current training materials, job aids, ect. to use to build out the materials. The new hire training agenda design document was the base document for the initiative. I used it to track progress on the individual trainings being developed and any changes or updates needed to the agenda.
2. Individual design documents/storyboards: Each individual training went through its own analysis and design phase. All planned trainings first had a design document and/or storyboard designed for SME approval prior to moving into development. My team and I completed these throughout the 3 phases of the initiative.
This was one of the most important phases throughout the entire initiative. The larger initiative planning set up the success and efficiency of the project. I was able to plan each phase of training intakes from the larger plan and ensure we had a fully completed onboarding program by the end of the initiative. This also allowed for associate IDs to be brought in to support the initiative as needed. The larger plan made it easy for IDs to jump in and understand the larger project and their specific part.
Training agenda design document
The following is a sample of the training agenda design document created as a project plan for the larger training initiative. Each training materials has an overview about the new training, links the current materials the new training will replace and lists out next steps with any needed resource links.
Please note: This sample is redacted due to privacy policies.
Development phases
This phase included taking the project planning document created during the Analysis phase and designing the new trainings. I worked with associate designers to split the design load. We worked in 3 phases of design and development:
Phase I: Foundational trainings
This phase was done first. It was the largest and most important phase. The goal of this phase was to focus on trainings that were most important to the role. This phase included elearning courses, videos and larger ILT trainings. By the end of this phase a baseline of quality training was developed. This phase went first due to urgency of new hire training. Onboarding could often take place quickly without notice. The goal was to have the most important training materials ready to go as needed.
Phase II: Soft skills training/secondary skills
This phase focused on secondary skills needed for the role. This included soft skills for employees and non-urgent work flows. This phase insured onboarding was robust and would cover professionalism and other skills to support the work role.
Phase III: Added engagement (and fun!)
Who says onboarding has to be miserable? This phase was to add in fun learning engagement such as game show quizzzes, Kahoot! competitions, positive morning practices and more. The goal was to add in elements to onboarding to get the group to interact, get to know each other and have fun. All important parts to onboarding and buying in to a company.
The design and development phase ended with a set of newly completed trainings. Each training created went through it's own needs assessment, project plan/storyboarding and training development/approval. All phases were completed in a 2.5 month time frame.
Sample design
The following is a sample design of an ILT onboarding training. This training walks through each visit call specialists will schedule with members. It ends with a practice session and has new hires decide what type of visit to schedule with the member depending on the member's health needs.
Please note: This is a re-designed sample not the original training. This sample was created to show general elements within the original training. The training itself cannot be used due to company privacy policies.
Implementation phase
In this phase, the trainings went live. For the trainings to go live efficiently, 3 large pieces were considered.
Train the trainer sessions: Large train the trainer sessions were conducted to introduce trainers to the new training. During these sessions, I went over the onboarding agenda, gave an overview of major structure changes for onboarding and reviewed important materials. Trainers were also scheduled additional time to review trainings. A group chat was created so that I could answer any ongoing questions trainers may have while preparing with the new materials.
Training storage: All training materials were stored uniformly using ID storage systems in Sharepoint. This allowed for ease of access to the materials and to ensure materials were not changed or altered without intakes.
LMS management: Created elearning courses were put into the company's LMS. I worked with our LMS admin team to create a learning journey for onboarding. This journey was divided into 4 areas. New hires accessed each area at a time. Facilitators were given access to elearning courses to be aware of new hire completion of courses. New hires could not progress into coaching until all elearning courses were marked completed. Once new hire classes were assigned, I worked on collecting rosters and ensuring new hires were correctly in the onboarding journey.
Due to the large amount of change in this initiative, ongoing support was added during implementation. I worked continuously with facilitators during their first few rounds of the new onboarding trainings to troubleshoot any issues and answer questions.
Evaluation phase
The final piece that happened throughout the initiative was evaluation. Evaluation took place across several areas.
Training material feedback: All training materials went through multiple rounds of evaluation and feedback. This ensured that SMEs and stakeholders were aligned on the materials and all materials were correct to the workflow processes.
Additionally the Kirkpatrick model of evaluation was used throughout the process to evaluate the onboarding materials against company onboarding goals.
Level 1: A new hire survey went out to all new hires after they completed the new onboarding program. Learner results were evaluated to ensure learners were able to access the training and felt confident in their skill set after their onboarding experience.
Level 2: This level of evaluation took place in the form of knowledge checks, quizzes and graded role play sessions. Training materials included knowledge checks throughout and at the end of training sessions to evaluate learner's knowledge of the material. Larger knowledge checks took place throughout the onboarding period in graded role play calls with facilitators. New hires were expected to get 95% or above on all graded role play sessions.
Level 3: Impact within the role was evaluated over time. Week 3-Week 8 live member calls were graded by facilitators or QA as needed. These grades were tracked and presented at weekly leadership meetings. By week 8, all new hires were showing 87% or above on graded live calls. This showed new hires were improving their skills with member communication and their skills within the systems they were trained.
Level 4: This evaluation measures the larger impact of the onboarding program to the organization's goals. This was looked at in two measures: employee retention rates and member scheduling rates. These were tracked by leaders in the business.