New Hire Training: Worth the Time and Investment
A recent article on Fox Small Business about new employee training—which I encourage everyone to read—caused me to reflect on the way we approach client immersion at Prosek. In an organization like ours, it is critical to quickly establish how account work is divided, what our client mandate encompasses, the reasoning behind certain account processes and the history and industry context that help you place a client into a larger perspective. Our practitioners have very diverse industry backgrounds and quickly communicating their specific context is crucial.
Recently, part of my team responsibilities have grown to include getting new team members familiarized and ramped up with our clients, helping them to understand the work we do for them and the audiences/industries that are important. After all, our agency makes it a priority to dedicate time and effort to thoroughly and enthusiastically introducing folks who join our team to everything from client history—both the company’s history and their history with us— to providing context on where they fit within their industry, who their main competitors are and what our PR mandate is for them with details on the different groups we serve for those larger clients, our internal processes and the reasoning behind everything that we do for them. After all, without the full picture how can our team fully deliver the results our clients have come to expect?
By employing a one-on-one approach to onboarding, one that is tailored and customized to the new account members, I’ve found that the team dynamic and productivity has increased dramatically. This focused attention helps the “newbie” to more quickly gain confidence while building a better appreciation for the roles and responsibilities of the full team.
If covered at an early stage, when the new team member is focused on absorbing information versus keeping up with the day-to-day tasks, this approach can pay instant dividends for our team AND our client(s). Like the Fox Small Business article said, “Without the proper training, even the most promising new hires will likely fail to reach their true potential.” 