Maximizing New Hire Value

Recent scientific breakthroughs have led to the development of a methodology and supporting technology that increases new hire program effectiveness by both improving the quality of the learning experiences and enabling easy integration of the best of the classroom and mentoring experience. This approach is proven, with significant impacts such as:

• Reduced the ramp up time of new sales people from 4 months to 4 weeks

• Reduced the ramp-up time for manufacturing floor engineers from 24 months to 8 monthsCurrent Paradigms for New Hire Development

Most new hire programs rely on either intense, classroom-based training or ad hoc on-the-job mentoring (OJT). Both approaches have some strengths, but also significant weaknesses.

The primary advantage of intensive new hire classroom training is that it occurs in a controlled environment where the organization can determine what the new hire experiences, when they experience it and how they experience it. Unfortunately, many new hire training classes simply provide too much information, too quickly and with too little context and application to be effective

OJT mentoring programs, on the other hand, are all about learning through observation of colleagues' performance, discussion of key functions and supported practice. The new hire gets to experience, at least for a period of time, what the work actually demands. But, OJT experiences are often quite random and the learnings derived from the experiences are completely dependent on the effectiveness of the mentor. Unstructured OJT may be more engaging, but it is not a particularly reliable means of ensuring that new hires have the attitudes, knowledge and skills they need to ultimately succeed.

A few organizations try to use these two approaches together by providing classroom training followed by supported OJT. This too has faltered because too often the class is still overwhelming and the hand-off to the coach is unstructured, leaving the coach to determine what the reinforcing experiences will be. Integrated Class and OJT

Recent studies have shown that the key to ultimate new hire success is not in simply using these approaches together, but instead by integrating them into a single, unified experience. Breakthroughs in four areas - positive deviance, fair process, neuroscience and mass customization -- plus the emergence of "persuasive technology" have led to the development of a methodology that effectively integrates new hire training classes and high impact OJT support. More specifically, the model has 4 key parts:Set-the-Bar for the New Hire

In Set-the Bar, experts (aka "positive deviants") define the content to be learned by a new hire, as well as the optimum sequence and best approach for learning the content. They are asked:

• What would you teach someone about being a great new hire in a classroom?

• What of this would you have a manager or coach reinforce immediately after the class?

• What additional, higher order learnings would you guide the manager/coaches to teach once the basics are established?

The results of this process, which usually takes between one and three days depending on the complexity of the job, are incredibly consistent (Table 1), regardless of the industry.

The classroom environment always includes connecting the new hire's role to the larger purpose of the organization, basic background information and basic process and procedural information. At the end of the classroom portion, the new hire has a solid theoretical foundation for doing the job. The OJT portions take that theoretical foundation and systematically ensure that the learnings are applied, leading to a full capability employee.

The order of these experiences is a significant departure from the normal training approach. Most classes and OJT jump straight to the functional knowledge, focusing on the mechanics of the job, without any real context which reduces impact. Instead, the positive deviants stress creating a comprehensive context of the role before any effort is made to become operational.

Each of these "modules" is defined by a set of "principles" that specify the exact content to be learned in each stage and are supported by a set of "learning tasks" that the positive deviants believe is the optimum way to learn the best practices.Motivating the New Hire

A highly effective means of leveraging the positive deviant wisdom is to use persuasive technology as the platform for a hybrid "group coaching" and instructor led training process. Based on the science of fair process and the neuroscience of positive visualization, the hybrid form is much more effective than either stand-alone training or coaching.

After the positive deviant content is loaded into the persuasive technology, the process for new hires is:

1. A facilitator leads a group of up to 15 new hires into using the persuasive technology to learn about the positive deviants' objective, organizing steps and key "principles." The new hires read the content out loud, discuss it in small groups and put it in their own words, which drives an initial understanding of the concepts

2. A facilitator also leads the group to perform the learning tasks. These learning tasks may include traditional classroom training, facilitator presentations, case studies or interviews of selected positive deviants about key processes. While the learning tasks look and feel like traditional classroom training, they are done in the context of the positive deviant content and the persuasive technology which provides structure.

3. After a learning task is complete, the new hires return to the technology, indicate that the learning tasks is complete and, most critically, record their learnings

As a result of this process, new hires are very engaged and quickly learn their key objectives, have sufficient background information to be effective and are able to efficiently manage the operational processes.Sustaining the New Hires' Learning

One of the primary challenges to traditional approaches occurs in the transition from classroom to OJT learning. Persuasive technology revolutionizes this transition. It effectively guides the new hires' managers through a simple new hire coaching process that systematically reinforces the learnings from the group coaching/classroom. More specifically, when the new hire returns to their manager:

• The new hires use the persuasive technology to explain the changes they made of the objective, organizing steps, and principles to their manager. They also use it to describe the learning they recorded after completing each learning task. This shows the manager their depth of conceptual understanding, reinforces the learnings and prepares both of them for applying the learning.

• The new hire and manager jointly review, adapt and schedule additional learning tasks provided in the technology that are specifically designed to drive application of the positive deviant best practices taught in the class to the new hires actual job function.

• The new hire performs the learning tasks, debriefs with their manager, repeats as necessary, and records both their learning and progress in the technology.

Transitioning to OJT usually takes several weeks with conventional approaches. Using this new approach, however, the new hire is self-driven to quickly and completely internalize all of the fundamental knowledge required to be successful. Now, the new hire is ready for greater depth provided in additional OJT. The manager coaches the new hire through learning and applying the best practices for the remaining, more sophisticated modules until the new hire is fully up-to-speed.Scaling for Rapid Growth

In order to ensure wide-spread impact, all of this is tracked by the persuasive technology, enabling the organization to monitor many new hires and provide quicker, more effective support. It also provides management with insight into the commitment and skills of its managers at developing their people.

Also, this approach requires significantly less time and effort than traditional approaches, making it easier to use with large numbers of new hires. Collecting the positive deviant best practices requires only three days, the group coaching and teaching of the new hire class tend to be quicker than most classes and the coaching by the manager is much more efficient than random, unstructured coaching.Summary

At the beginning, we asked what it would mean to your organization to bring your new hires to full productivity in half the time. Now, with less labor, a new training paradigm makes ramping up new hires much faster and more effective, which is something that benefits any organization.