Dive Brief:

• Many companies get it wrong when it comes to employee onboarding and development activities. Too much is focused on upfront learning, and not enough time is devoted to ongoing, internal learning activities.

• Marry McAleavey, who writes for SH!FT, the blog for eLearning platform Aura Interactiva, shares that, "“High performance within a company is directly dependent upon the intellectual capital you build internally, and this is where onboard learning comes in."

• She cites Professor Donald L. Kirkpatrick, a leading mind in workforce learning and the past president of the American Society for Training and Development, who introduced the two major components of business learning: complete use of pertinent resources and management involvement, as being the foundation of successful onboarding learning. 

Dive Insight:

A workforce development program is only as effective as its ability to engage employees from the time they begin work, through the continuation of their learning on the job. It also influences employee retention rates. McAleavey makes this point stick by sharing a 4-step plan for testing learning plans.

Her guidelines for testing onboarding include: (1) the reaction of learners once they are exposed to the materials, (2) testing the learning friendliness of all course materials, (3) observing long-term behavior changes in employees as a result of the learning, and (4) evaluating company-wide results of the training (not just individual).

McAleavey also recommends the use of the right learning management system that allows for the structured development of course materials relevant to employees and the ability to share information in multiple media formats.