The trainees are coming! This makes onboarding easy and time-saving.

September 22, 2021

The trainees are coming! This makes onboarding easy and time-saving.

Onboarding

Company

September is an exciting time: The new training year begins! This requires a lot from both company officials and trainees: Other tasks are left undone, and important foundational knowledge can quickly be lost. Digital support can relieve you and the trainees in the first few weeks. How this can be achieved with "Blended Onboarding" will be explained in this article using an example.

Integrating new colleagues is always a challenge: onboarding means shifting the focus away from everyday business towards knowledge transfer and support. For trainees coming to companies in September, the process is often even more intense. Here, supervisors, team leaders, and HR personnel must start further ahead in the learning process than with experienced professionals.

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The challenge: Conveying a lot of knowledge in the shortest time possible

The goals for the first weeks with the new trainees are clear:

Clearly communicate the process for the next 2 to 3 years
Impart necessary foundational knowledge about the company and important processes
Ensure a familiarization to quickly integrate the trainees
... and still maintain a productive working environment.

All of this combined is a great time burden for those responsible – and a cognitive challenge for the trainees who have to acquire a lot of knowledge in a short time: from occupational safety to using new tools and the names of many new people, all the way to the particularly important operation of the coffee machine! 😀

All this knowledge must not only be conveyed by those responsible and supervisors: The trainees must also understand it, process it, and have it readily available at all times. Only then can a smooth working day be achieved quickly.

Adult with group of teenagers in professional training-1

Solution approach: Digitally supported onboarding for trainees

For onboarding to succeed quickly and sustainably, it is important that the learning process matches the target group. Therefore, you need to know your target group well: The biggest difference between experienced new employees and trainees is often the age: The average age of trainees is around 20 years. This means that trainees mostly belong to "Generation Z".

What characterizes Generation Z trainees?

Digital natives: Grew up with digital technologies.
Naturally use smartphones and tablets.
Skilled in handling knowledge available digitally/online.
Tend to have a disdain for print media such as books and magazines
Communication through smartphones, clouds, apps, and social networks

Use these characteristics and habits to your advantage! From this, you can derive directly how onboarding for young trainees should look so that it is effective and motivating:

You should design onboarding for trainees like this

Focus on digital media, little print media like traditional manuals
Knowledge available at any time (learning on demand)
Knowledge is flexibly available on mobile devices, such as a smartphone or tablet
Appropriate devices at the workplace are readily available
Flexible scheduling for learning directly at the workplace, alternatively set learning times
Offer direct exchange with peers and contact with trainers (Interesting for this: Study by AUBI-Plus on the wishes of trainees regarding e-learning)

All these points are fulfilled by a novel learning concept called "Blended Onboarding".

Training trainees digitally supported with "Blended Onboarding"

You surely know the term "Blended Learning" from the field of further education: the combination of online and face-to-face learning. "Blended Onboarding" is directly based on this: the combination of learning content in an online course with personal live sessions.

Live sessions + online course = Blended Onboarding

Onboarding according to the "Blended Onboarding" concept supports all goals for the first weeks and meets the habits and expectations of young trainees.

Benefits of Blended Onboarding for employers and trainees

| Advantages for managers / companies | Advantages for trainees || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- || Time savings through prepared, reusable online content Time savings through self-learning phases of the trainees without supervision Flexibility through content that can be adjusted at any time (compared to manuals, for example) Consistent quality and standardized content guaranteed for all trainees Quick integration of trainees through personal contact in the live sessions | Familiar digital learning environment without additional burdensome acclimatization Higher motivation through multimedia learning content instead of outdated manuals Flexibility: Important content is available at any time when needed High fun factor through modern learning methods Personal support and getting to know new colleagues in live sessions |

Practice: Example online course for the onboarding of trainees

Below you see an online course on the blink.it learning platform, with which the concept "Blended Onboarding" was developed. The course certainly does not fit all training professions, but gives you a first idea for practical implementation:

Screenshot_Beispielkurs_Azubis_Blended_Onboarding

Example of an accompanying online course for trainees in their first days/weeks.

Clear structures in the onboarding course

The course is set up so that the content is released automatically in sequence. This makes the online course clearer for you and the trainees and brings more structure. Recommendation: Plan the content by weeks if you have more than a few basic contents (Week 1: All content on Topic 1 – Week 2: All content on Topic 2, etc.) and create an onboarding plan using the guide "Blended Onboarding in Companies".

Quick integration through Q&A sessions

To turn the online course into a blended onboarding experience, you should also plan Q&A sessions on topics where questions are foreseeable, or where additional personal support makes sense. In these cases, the online contents serve as preparation so that the question sessions can be productive. Recommendation: Plan a minimum of 15 minutes of Q&A sessions daily. Plan Q&A sessions with different contacts and colleagues to strengthen the integration of the trainees.

"Recycling" in the online course saves time!

Additionally, you can "recycle" the content on the blink.it learning platform: Some information is certainly important not only for trainees but also for other new employees, interns, working students, and others. For example, safety topics or site plans. Recommendation: Create a base course as a template that contains all the content that is important for all new hires. Copy this base course and supplement it with specific content. This way, you additionally save time and can be sure that all individuals in the company receive the same information. Only the welcome video should be created individually for each newcomer by you or the supervisor – this increases the bond from the very beginning. The easiest way is to create videos with a smartphone.

Save time and nerves during trainee onboarding

The Blended Onboarding concept offers everything that is important for the onboarding of trainees: You save time as a manager or trainer, as online content can be flexibly adjusted and reused each year. It allows young trainees to learn independently in their familiar digital environment. Additionally, it enables intensive personal contact and support. Thus, it reduces the burden on both managers and trainees to facilitate a smooth start. So, use modern digital learning concepts not only for further education but also for the new generation in your company!