Why You Need to Create Professional Training for Experienced Workers

How to get more out of an experienced hire!

Most mid to large size firms have a training and development or on-boarding program for new graduates – from Bachelor’s to PhD’s. This program or session gets them acquired to the company, general role, departments and potential peers or mentors. This gets them on the right track and begins to bridge them from academic to work life.  But what do you do with someone joining your company after 5-10 years in the business world? How do you on-board someone going from a technical to a business role? Do you on-board someone who recently joined from an acquisition? Do you on-board a new division in a growing business area? Most companies would say no.

Companies already have an entry level program, why not an experienced professional program? An MBA helps prepare and educate much about the business world, but what about real world, job relevant training? For companies with technical products where employees can be promoted from the technical to business side, wouldn’t you want to mitigate any skill gaps, create connections in the different areas of the business and leverage all knowledge, skills and abilities that he has gained from his or her previous experiences?  Short answer: yes.

For training to be effective for experienced employees it needs to have a customized implementation strategy, senior management approval, results and feedback.

Customized Implementation Strategy for Learning

Not every experienced professional has the same background or skills, nor do they need the same formal training, but they should all have a minimum set of requirements and base knowledge for the level in which their job requires. This knowledge foundation could be for competition, markets, verticals, products, applications, organization, reporting structure, strategies, goals or products. This knowledge set should be based on the functional area, scope of work, leadership development and strategic direction. Beyond the basic knowledge requirement the experienced worker training would also choose challenging learning opportunities in key functional areas. This engagement learns teaches the students the interactions necessary for business growth (good for business), shows visibility/investment in the employee (good for managers), and gives a deeper and challenging knowledge and skill base for the employee to use a variety of tactics and connections to deeper their investment in the company (good for employees).

Training Sponsor and Mentor

This sponsorship or mentorship has a twofold requirement, to choose the right candidate and to choose a point person. This verification ensures that the target employee shows executive or advanced management talent. In addition, an employee endorsement would show that the candidate is a fit for the program and ready for the potential challenges and assignments integrated into the program. If the program also uses a mentor or partner strategy, it would place existing management with the new candidates, instilling a network and giving the candidate the ability to express candid feedback, ask questions, and more deeply understand the business.

Results and Feedback

To determine the ROI on any investment there needs to be a way to track the outcome of the program. This is not just a test of what they should know, this is a test to see how well the candidate developed, connected and grew over the course of the program. This can be through mentor reviews, peer reviews, staff member review – essentially a 360 review for each assignment or project. Additionally, you can look at the outcome and value the person added to each of the assignments through the lenses of teamwork, effectiveness, benefits, and management ability.

Even though there are never any guarantees on this sort of endorsement, when you invest in your employees, they will invest in the company. An experienced professional program gives high-value experienced employees that more global view of the company. This will motivate employees, giving them the opportunity to hit the ground running. So why not add value to this forgotten group, accelerate the development of middle management, and expose all facets of your business? You never know, you might get more than a high value leader; you might get business efficiencies, cross-functional collaboration and a stronger company network.

-thePonderingNick