Employee Orientation and Training - Part I

Selecting the right employee is only one third of the process of having a good employee. Suppose you have done the things that were presented in the last posting to put the odds in your favor when selecting an employee. Suppose you are successful - you have selected an employee with the potential to be a good, if not great, employee. Now what? What is the next step?

Many business owners stop at this point. They take the "sink or swim" approach. Or as they like to (defensively) call it - On the Job Training. Yes, OJT is a method of training employees, and yes, OJT can be an effective training procedure under the right circumstances. However, there is a huge difference between OJT and "sink or swim."

What I mean when I refer to "sink or swim" is that the business owner has given the new employee no orientation and no training. He simply says, "There is your desk," or "There is your equipment," or "There is the dining room and kitchen." And then he says, "Well, what are you waiting for? Get to work."

Imagine a professional football team drafting the number one college quarterback. The quarterback signs his contract. The coach walks over to him and says, "Welcome to the team. Our first game is at 1:00 on September 3. It's a home game. Be at the stadium about noon so you'll have time to find a uniform that fits you. See you then." How well do you think the quarterback - and the whole team - will perform?

Or what about a medical student who graduated from medical school last week showing up for her first day of work at the hospital and the chief of surgery says, "Welcome to General Hospital. You are scheduled to perform a heart transplant at 8:00 tomorrow morning. Good luck." How would you like to be the patient?

Both of those examples are absurd. But I have seen it happen over and over again in the business world. Why does it happen? Why do business owners fail to provide proper training? I believe there are three main reasons. First, everyone (even business owners) makes the assumption that what is easy for them is easy for everyone. What is common sense to them is common sense to everyone. Of course, that is not true. I know very little about trigonometry. I had one semester of trig in school and I really struggled with it. I didn't enjoy it. A few years ago, an employee of a client was trying to explain a trig problem to me that he was using for a machining operation. After his fifth try he said, "My goodness Ron, this is so easy. Anybody can understand it!" He just couldn't comprehend how I could possibly not understand the trig because to him, it was so simple. To me, understanding accounting and financial statements is so simple. It all makes perfect sense. Yet, there are those who have difficulty understanding it.

Obviously, a business owner knows the operations of her business very well. Otherwise, she wouldn't be in that business. To her, it is simple. Therefore, she unconsciously concludes that there is no need for her to explain it to the employee. Wrong!

The second reason that the business owner selects "sink or swim" is timing. Business owners have a sense of urgency. I believe they need a sense of urgency to be successful. However, employee training is an exception. The owner says, "We need the job done now because the customer is waiting" so a newly hired, untrained employee performs the task. The question is, "Do you want the job done correctly, or do you just want it done now?" You may lose a customer if the job is not done now, but you will certainly lose many customers if the employee never learns how to do the job correctly.

But it is not your fault, you say. An employee quit without notice and now you need the new employee to fill his shoes quickly. Well, shame on you for not having backup. Does that football team that we talked about have just one quarterback? You may not be able to afford to have employees sitting on the bench, but you can cross-train them.

The final reason is time and effort. It does take time and effort to train someone, either by the business owner or another employee. It is work that does not produce immediate profits. Owners do not like that kind of work. Training takes the trainer away from his own duties. My answer to that excuse is that it takes effort to be the number one golfer in the world. Tiger Woods practices EVERY day, not just when he feels like it. Even though he is Number One, he still has an instructor. If the number one golfer in the world makes that kind of effort to be the best, what kind of effort should you make to be the best in your business? He was voted Number One. He earned it by his performance. Your business has to earn it as well. It takes effort to be number one in anything, even business. If you want your company to be Number One, your employees have to be Number One.

The next posting will talk more about the orientation and training process. Please feel free to post your comments and also your suggestions for future topics.