How many days of training do you invest in new employees?

[Bronze_Palms]

How many days of training do you invest in new employees? When do they get keys and work alone?

Thanks in advance!!

[homeprogreen]

Back when I had employees I would spend the 1st week or so on training. Then probably a month or two of them working with close supervision so that I could ensure that they had a firm grasp of how to do things and were providing the customer service experience that I wanted. No way they were getting keys until they’ve been working for a year

[SVLFever]

This is a great question.  The answer quite simply is "not long enough".    Although I would say we do a really decent job at onboarding staff, and that time that we train varies by position, I still find myself thinking that we could do more.

Since we are a business that tends to employ a lot of younger workers (and many of which it's their first job), some of our training isn't necessarily related specifically to the job, but more about "proper etiquette and behavior".   I don't mean that derogatorily either, but some of our younger staff haven't really had a lot of "face to face" customer interaction experience, due mainly to technology.

Sometimes we spend as much time training not only "what to say" but "how to say it".    We know pretty quickly if the staff member is going to survive based on how that training goes, as the actual job training.

I freely admit though that we do NOT do a good job on a "checklist" type of onboarding, and at times I think I should go down that path, but sometimes this other situation gets us off track a bit and we focus more on the how first, then the what.

Not quite an answer, but somewhat of an answer.  🙂

[doc_choc]

@Bronze_Palms Depends on the job position. The retail team have 'on the job' training usually for a few days, more if they/we feel it may benefit them and then we gradually ease them forward with more responsibilities as there get more confident with the role. We also have the retail team visit production for a few days to meet the whole team, they get to see the other side of the business what's involved with the making, sales and marketing effort. It gives them the tools to talk with more authority on the product with customers.

[ryanwanner]

When training new coffee bar staff, I warn them up front that training may take upwards of a month. However, I have my training program set up in modules. As a new hire is proficient in a module, they are moved onto the next one. I let the new hires move at their own pace (within reason) so I know the information is sticking. The final test is to have the new hire make a drink for one of my long term regulars: if they like the drink, I know that the training worked.

Keys are given out on an as-needed basis after that, but usually it's a few months after training before I've built up enough trust to allow the new hires to open/close on their own.