By Chelsea Babin

When you’re leaving your current job for a new opportunity, being promoted, or your organization is simply adding another member whose job description is exactly like yours, you may be called on to train a new hire. If you have little to no experience training, don’t let it stress you out! These 8 helpful tips will ensure the training process is thorough and runs smoothly.

1. Plan it Out: Chances are you’ll know in advance how long you’ll have to get the new hire trained and up to speed. Whether it’s one day or several weeks, use this information to carefully plan out and set a training schedule. Although it needs to be flexible and not too regimented, setting a training schedule ahead of time helps you list out all of the things you’ll need to train them on so you can check them off along the way and make sure the new hire is thoroughly trained.

2. Transition from Big Picture to Small Details: If you dive directly into the small details they’ll need to know to perform a certain task before explaining why this task is performed (or what the company even does), the new hire is less likely to retain that information. Make sure you frame your training to begin with the big picture and slowly transition into the smaller details.

3. Provide A Notebook: You won’t always be there to guide this new hire along their way, that’s what notes are for! Although some new hires will come prepared to take thorough notes, plan ahead and provide a notebook and pen for them just in case. These notes can be invaluable later and will save you from frequently repeating or retraining this employee.

4. Check Your Pacing: Every so often, make sure you check your pacing with the new hire. Are you going to fast over anything? Do they have questions about one of the things you’ve already gone over? Checking in on your pacing frequently will help you understand what speed your new hire learns at and you can adjust the training program to help suit their unique needs.

5. Introductions and Explanations on Who Does What: Beyond the tasks they’ll need to perform, it’s also a good idea to introduce the new hire to everyone they’ll be working with, explain what they do, and make them a cheat sheet of who to ask about certain things in the office. This introduction and information can be invaluable and help the new hire feel more comfortable in their new work environment.

6. Address Common Problems: If there are certain issues that come up all of the time or you’ve found a secret amazing way to shorten a long task, include that in your training! Any problem that frequently arose for you will probably do the same for them if they’re working in your old (or current) position.

7. Provide Independent Work Time: It’s not enough to simply have them shadow you for 8 hours while you co-perform their daily tasks. Instead, make sure you’re allowing time for them to work independently on some of the tasks you’ve just trained them on. This will give them a feel for how the job actually is and help them identify any holes in their training that you can easily patch by answering their questions.

8. Set Goals: If you have a goal in mind for the first month, the first quarter, and the first year in this position it can be immensely helpful to the new hire. If they have a trajectory for where their work performance should be by certain milestones, they’ll have something to work towards and will often do better than new hires who were trained and then simply expected to get to work.

Training a new hire for a role you once had or still have sounds difficult, but it doesn’t have to be! With these 8 helpful tips you can make sure you’re providing thorough, valuable training that will help them settle easily into their new role and excel at the company. Don’t you wish the person who trained you had these tips on hand?