The first 6 things I make every new team member do!
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When I was working in corporate America, I often worked with established teams, and sometimes those teams needed to grow.
The training schedule oftentimes looks like this:
You were hired because your boss/another team member was overwhelmed
Your first day was a crapshoot of trying to remember all the names, spend way too much time with HR on major $$ decisions (insurance, benefits, etc) that have to be completed that day (seriously HR?!?)
Trying to log into systems + good luck having IT stop by today
And as a new team member, you were sitting down with peers to get a crash course on the industry, the company and the job. Usually, you were passed from peer to peer, and not really given the right tools to be successful in your job, you just learned more about what they did and got to know some people you could have lunch with...
Many teams didn’t have a formal process for training teams, so you were lucky if your boss really knew the ins/outs of the work AND had time to train you.. This leads to overwhelm, frustration and a lot of sitting around waiting for someone to help you once you realize you were stuck on a task and until they had time to teach you the techniques/protocols. Or, maybe you thought you were doing the job right for months, before your boss realizes a vital part of your job wasn’t explained well to you!
When I started my business, it was just me. But as I’ve been the kickstart of a team for business owners and grown my own team, it’s helped me put processes and training into tangible, bite-sized perspective. And because of many poor experiences in the job world, I decided to make a change with my latest team hire. Here are my tips to make bringing on a new team member easy for you AND the team member.
#1 - Give them homework or a checklist BEFORE getting started on the job.
Ever started a job and spent the first 4 hours making important decisions about benefits, 401K retirement plans and even your tax withholding information without the time and knowledge to back it up? Give your team homework or provide them all the documents to peruse and fill out before you officially start working together. (1) Sign a contract? Check. (2) Fill out a team onboarding form? Check. (3) Fill out that W-9 form? Check. They’ll arrive prepared, and you won’t be sitting around waiting for them to read the documents.
#2 - Give them access to the team communication channel/worksheets they’ll need
Arrived to your new job, and didn’t even have access to any of the channels, worksheets or documents you needed? Let alone, IT can’t get to you until the end of the week? Been there, done that. Preparing for your new team member is critical, and use the motto “They don’t know what they don’t know” about working with you and your team. Sure - you might over explain a process or set them up on systems they won’t be using yet, but you’ll all be ready when they need to dive in! Make getting started as easy as possible by verifying they have the right tools at their fingertips.
#3 - Record walkthrough videos
I hate writing down processes, and what’s worse than writing them down is reading them! Total snoozefest, and I’ve done enough client and team training to know that walkthrough videos are the fastest way to train your team. They’re also the most effective and easy to understand way to train teams because it primarily engages with both sight and sound.
There are many ways to screen record and share your recordings with your team. I use Zoom to screen record, since I can export 3 different file types, and I save the recording file to my computer. Oftentimes, the MP4 file is all I need to keep.
And because I already pay for Podia (where I house all my digital products + courses), it was easy to create a private team “course” available for all of my team members, but hidden from the public. If you don’t create courses, then using Dropbox or Google Drive to share videos is an easy alternative!
This means anyone (even my emergency point person who isn’t in the day-to-day of my business), has exactly what they need and they know the processes and content is current.
#4 - Schedule meetings
Book those meetings! If you have 1-2 team members you might just want a team meeting that fits all of your schedules, but if you have a bigger team you might need to have smaller group based meetings, and designate a representative on each team to attend a strategy meeting.
#5 - Tell your team how they can make you happy
This is all about EXPECTATIONS. Clear expectations before and during the working process will make your life and your team’s life better. But if you’re not sure what those expectations look like, just tell your team how they can make you happy! No matter what you do, being consistent will help!
#6 - Ask for feedback
ASK FOR FEEDBACK + often. Now, how much or how often you ask for feedback will be dictated on the type of work you do together. However, I always try to stay open for feedback, even if it sucks! Because if your team knows it sucks, it’s likely your clients will figure it out soon enough!
WOAH - that’s a ton of tips! But use this as your checklist and guidepost for bringing on a new team member (or your first team member) with confidence!
Do you already have a team?
Then read my Top 6 ways to work with your team for added success!
