10 Tips to Grow Agencies: How to Train a New Hire
Growing your agency can be exciting because you have the chance to grow your team and recruit new employees. There is one downside. The best way to train and onboard your new hires is to determine the best method.
It may seem tempting to give your new employees an overview of your agency, then let them dive in. However, this approach won’t work long-term.
You must help your new employees to learn how to swim.
How can you make sure your new hires are trained and ready for success in your agency?
We’re sharing this post:
- It is crucial to train new hires
- Here are 7 tips to help you train new employees
- Keep these best practices in mind when you are assisting employees with their onboarding.
Why it is important to train new hires
No matter what role or type of business you are in, training and development are important steps to onboarding new employees. A good onboarding process results in almost 70% employees remaining at their company for at least three years.
Agency onboarding is more important than ever because the right training program will not only help your business succeed, but also your clients’ businesses.
Here are some reasons why training new employees is so crucial.
Your tech stack is subject to a learning curve
Most likely, your agency uses many technology platforms and tools. These may include general platforms, cross-functional collaboration tools or other systems that your new employees are familiar with such as Slack or Google Analytics. There are likely to be others that you have exclusive rights to.
Although these internal systems are intended to make campaign management and reporting easier, they can also present challenges for new users.
It is important to explain to your new hires the various tools, platforms, and platforms they will use. Also, how to best use them.
You can help them quickly transition from running campaigns to managing them, or just to performing their daily tasks by taking the time to explain the agency tools and systems they will be using.
It is important to share knowledge and best practices.
Your employees will learn tips and best practices from working in your agency over a period of time. These are small bits of information that employees learn from doing their job. This is why it is important to retain employees. Existing employees are familiar with the details of your company, your clients and how they can perform.
Formal training programs should contain documented best practices, tips and insights that will give new hires a solid understanding about the work they will be doing. Your program should include job shadowing, knowledge sharing and information sharing from existing employees.
This Training Plan Template Includes sessions with different departments.
While it is one thing to tell others how to do it, it’s quite another to actually see it in action and take it on yourself.
You’re setting up your employees for success by providing them with the in-house knowledge they need during training.
It has an impact on the client experience
Your success is determined by the quality of service and results that you offer your clients. Your clients will suffer if your new employees don’t receive the right training.
Your new employees may not know how to deliver the same level of service as clients, they might not be able to continue delivering results or they might take longer to complete their duties. This could lead to clients feeling frustrated.
You can train your employees to ensure that you are prioritizing client relations.
Here are 7 tips to help you train a new employee
These tips will help you create a smooth onboarding and training experience for your new hires.
1. Set out your expectations clearly
When training a new employee, it is important to set expectations. This includes setting expectations for the training and onboarding process, as well as expectations regarding what to expect from your new employee.
Here are some options:
- A clearly-described job description is important beyond the hiring and recruitment process. This should be repeated when training new employees. It clearly defines what is expected of them in the long-term, as well as what they can expect to do on a daily basis. For the onboarding process, refresh your job descriptions if they don’t clearly outline daily job duties and overall goals.
- Formal training. A formal training program is a document that outlines what new employees can expect during their first week or weeks of employment with your agency. These can include the training sessions they will be attending, learning objectives, and shadowing current employees.
- 30–60-90-day plan. This plan will help you keep your new employee on track during onboarding. You can include milestones that your agency considers important to their success such as closing a new client or conducting a first client phone call.
These documented processes and plans will help you communicate with your new hire.
2. Learn about the needs and potential opportunities of your new hire
Every new hire is unique in their experience, background, and gaps. Although you will likely collect a lot of this information during the hiring process it is important to have a clear understanding of your new hire’s needs during training.
You can do this in many ways.
You can give your new hires the opportunity to ask questions during the training process. This will help you get a better idea of what they might need.
You can keep your new hires engaged and excited by tailoring their training to meet their needs.
3. Your agency’s mission and purpose should be shared
You have just hired a new employee to your team. Your new hire should embrace your mission and purpose. Employees who are aligned to a company’s mission and purpose are less likely to leave their job. Engaged employees contribute 21% to profitability and a 20% increase productivity.
Your mission statement and agency purpose should be shared with your new hire. Also, you can give an overview of your agency’s purpose, including who it serves and what you are most proud of.
If your agency offers matched volunteer hours for employees, please share an example of how they have helped other organizations through these hours.
You can also share case study stories and testimonials about clients and the work your agency did for them. You can inspire new employees by showing passion for your company and your clients’ businesses.
4. Get to know each other
Training is an excellent opportunity for employees to share their knowledge and best practices, as we have already mentioned.
You can foster connections by partnering new hires with current employees. This will result in a better employee experience and higher retention. A study showed that 86% new employees who were mentored during onboarding were more likely than others to remain with the company for the long-term.
It’s a great way to highlight your top employees and show your appreciation for their contributions to the agency.
Present your employees’ experiences with your agency. Ask them to share their learnings and favorite part about working with you. New hires can also book one-on-one time with current employees to ask questions and/or shadow them on the job.
This hands-on learning is a great way to build upon the foundational information that you provide new hires, and show them how it works in practice.
5. Make mock client calls
You can include practice sessions in your training program if your new employees will work with clients.
Mock client calls are a great way to gauge whether a new hire has fully grasped all the information in your training or where they need to improve. They can also see what clients might expect of them.
These mock calls should be treated as real business. New hires should contact you like a client. Schedule the call through Zoom or another program, and then record it for training purposes.
You can give your new hires the complete experience by replicating it from start to finish. This will help build their confidence and knowledge with the material.
6. Keep your new hire engaged
New hires can find the training and onboarding process difficult and overwhelming. It’s difficult to learn a lot in such a short time. It may be more challenging to keep your remote employees engaged or gauge their feelings.
To cater to different learning styles, you can include different learning methods in your training program. Some people enjoy watching videos, while others like learning from others (or by doing).
It might be worth considering building in a less structured way so that new employees can meet with current employees, ask questions or learn more about the agency.
It is crucial to build a culture that supports new hires. This can be done during the training process.
7. Check in after onboarding
After your new employee has been fully trained, you can schedule time for them to check in. They will be able to ask questions, share their learnings, or continue to work on an area that they are interested in.
It’s a great opportunity to have a conversation with your new employee about their career goals and potential growth. After a few months of experience, your new employee may be able to see the potential growth paths. You can keep them engaged long-term by giving them space to communicate their goals and offer feedback.
Your agency can make training new employees a success
It will take some trial and error to create the best training program for your agency. It is well worth the effort to create the right training program for your agency .
Here are seven tips to help you train new employees.
- Set out your expectations clearly
- Learn about the needs and potential opportunities of your new hire
- Your agency’s mission and purpose should be shared
- Get to know each other
- Make mock client calls
- Keep your new hire engaged
- Check in after onboarding
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