New Hire Training Case Study: Sales/Manufacturing
(Note – some details have been modified to ensure client confidentiality)
Who?
A client in the manufacturing industry reached out to us for help developing training for their new sales reps.
Why?
The company was expanding and hiring new sales staff throughout the United States but didn’t have a system in place to train these remote employees. They wanted to ensure that their new sales reps were set up for success, both from a product training perspective and a sales/client service perspective. They also wanted to ensure consistency from each of their team members so that customers would get a consistent experience regardless of which sales rep they worked with across the company.
The company had a lot of out of date and even conflicting training material because each branch within the company had their own method of training employees – there was no coordinated, overarching plan, and no consistency between branches.
What?
The client wanted an employee training solution that could be both a physical document that could be carried with new team members, and a digital option that could be opened on laptops/tablets.
When/Where?
Not relevant :)
The Solution
We created a dual purpose printable and online employee training guide along with a companion manager guide.
We started by doing a fulsome review of the company’s existing training material and identified gaps, conflicting information, and processes that weren’t clear. We then worked with the company to resolve these issues. Some of this was just asking for information; other times it was meeting with key staff members (aka subject matter experts or SMEs) to get more insight into a process or best practice.
From there, we used the content to develop an outline of a training plan. We also decided how long the onboarding program should take (the length of the formal employee onboarding training process).
At each step along the way, drafts were provided to the client to validate. After all, they are the experts in their field and would be able to identify incorrect information or nuances about their line of work that we wouldn’t necessarily know as third-party training experts.
Once the outline was approved by the client, we started pulling the information together in an organized fashion using one consistent voice. We worked with the client’s media department to develop new infographics to communicate key points clearly, as well as overall document design so that it aligned with their overall company brand. For this project, we leveraged the client’s internal media department, but we could have also provided this service directly.
We also ensured that the plan incorporated learning theory. Why? We wanted to ensure that employees would find value in their training time. We also wanted to be sure that employees with different learning styles and preferences would get as much as they could out of the training.
We developed quiz questions, scenarios and even role playing (with a manager’s participation) so that new employees would see the applicability of what they were learning.
We also developed a companion manager guide. The goal for the companion guide was to provide support to managers who were responsible for training new employees. It included things like answer keys and learning milestones that required follow-up to ensure mastery. It also included reminders for things that had to be coordinated (like site visits and system access) to ensure a successful training experience.
The client had the training guide professionally printed and bound. This wasn’t necessary but is an option for those who are interested in this approach.
The Result
“(High Tide Learning Studio) was definitely a 5/5 in all areas. (They) understood the work that needed to be done and were happy to take a collaborative or directive approach, depending on the needs at the time. (They) were easy to work with at all stages of the project and without (High Tide Learning Studio), I doubt we would have the successful training program content that we do. (They were) an excellent partner”.
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