Do You Offer Formal Training for New Hires?

While interviewing recently, I was surprised to be asked if we offer training for new employees. I took it for granted that all companies had a formal training program for their new hires. The individual I was interviewing told me about several positions he had started in the past in which he was expected to learn everything he would need to know about the company and his position on his own. Evidently, no one had the time to train him and there was no formal program in place to assist in the training.

To me, this is a recipe for failure. If you take the time, effort and expense to recruit and hire a new employee, you need to ‘follow through’ and make sure they start off with a strong foundation. They need to know the companies, products, services, policies, common practices, procedures, methodologies, etc. along with the tasks that will be expected of them. If you want long term success, you need to invest in short term foundation building, and training a new employee is what will give you that important base for them to grow on.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.