Digitising Induction Training- Need And Benefits Of Digitisation

An induction programme can be defined as training deployed within many businesses to welcome new employees to the company and prepare them for their new role. It helps in the integration of employees into the organization. There are mainly 3 types of induction programs:

• General Induction Programme:
• Specific Orientation Programme:
• Follow-up Induction Programme:

Employees change many jobs over the span of their employment years, and companies naturally want their fresh hires to be joining the productivity line as fast as possible. Even more so, when we’re talking about seasonal hires, in industries such as hospitality, manufacturing, and sales, that need to hit the ground running. At such instance of need, the employee induction training can advance things, by loading new employees with all the organizational knowledge and job skills that their new tasks require. Some programs can be much more streamlined, educating inductees on one subject in-depth; such as on-site Health and Safety.

Every company is different and induction programs can vary covering a wide array of materials and policies, such as –

• Company policies and procedures
• Company culture and ethos
• Employee responsibilities
• In-house systems
• Code of conduct
• Company history
• Compliance training
• Understanding the service or product

It can be challenging for HR managers to gather all the new employees and respective trainers at one place for the required number of days. Also, there can be a lot of administrative tasks like travel and stay arrangements of trainers and attendees, arrangements for classrooms and learning and teaching equipment, study materials etc.

The solution lies in adapting to technologically advanced methods to cater to the tech-driven employees of today. Organisations must advance from traditional methodologies of PowerPoint Presentations to creating interactive and enlightening induction programs. Engaging the employees in activities that urge them to explore their new workplace; arm them with simple tools and technologies like tablets, customised learning software and go digital with induction gaming. With the deployment of a standardized digital learning program, organizations can ensure that new employees joining across locations get uniform induction experience. In addition, companies may also localize their training to reach out to employees from various geographies.

The following points enlisted are the benefits of digitising the induction program in organisations:

• Independent learning: New employees are often overloaded with information during induction training. They can take digital learning anytime, anywhere and can repeat the course any number of times at their own individual pace. They can complete the training independently without any hassle.
• Catering to various staff types: It’s a challenge to make the induction training program flexible enough to be deployed across various departments and groups such as full-time, part-time, freelancers, contractors and temporary staff. Digital learning induction course can be easily tailored to make specific parts of the training available to different types of staff.
• Customised learning applications– Customised and easy to navigate apps designed for mobile devices that allows any time and anywhere access to the learning content to participants and employees through their preferred device. It also gives the learners the benefit of life-time access to the learning content over their device.
• Maintains learners’ focus: Some sections of the induction training program such as company policies and procedures could be heavy for new employees. With the advantage of interesting multimedia elements, a variety of deployment methods, such topics can be covered interestingly for new employees.

Digital learning helps to make the induction experience fun and engaging especially for the millennial hires. Millennials can be classified as highly tech-savvy, determined, and they like to learn by exploring. Gamification elements such as leaderboards, badges, rewards, achievements, levels and visual progress bars appeal to the learners as well as inspires them to complete the training with focus and vigour.