Categories
Training

New Employee Onboarding

Nope graphic
Nope graphic

(Reducing the “NOPE” factor)

You’ve grown your business enough to be so busy that you have to hire employees. Congratulations! Now what?

You find the perfect candidate, and they are starting Monday.

What does your onboarding process look like? 

(If, at this point, you are asking “onboarding process? What process?”, you need to stop reading and call me immediately.)

For most small businesses, their onboarding process will consist of the mandatory anti-harassment video (on VHS, no less. Who still has a VCR anymore?) and a thick manual (if there is even a manual), a chair in the breakroom, and the following bit of advice: “If you have any questions, just ask someone…”. 

Ask WHO? They don’t know anyone there and everyone looks extremely busy. Plus, how do they know that they’re going to get the right answer?

This is training? 

Keep in mind that your new employee is feeling nervous about this experience. Their gut is telling them that this is new (and we don’t like new), and when they see that first red flag (like the thick manual, the non-advice and the VHS tape), they are going to NOPE right out the door. Right along with all the costs that it took to find them. How many times does this have to happen before you realize that you need a better way to onboard employees?

Small businesses don’t have an HR department to do their training for them. Most of it is On-The-Job, which is hit or miss at best.

What makes more sense is to bring someone in, with experience in creating training programs. I know what you’re thinking: “But they don’t know anything about my business.” 

That’s right. Neither do your new employees. The difference is, I can take what you give me, and package it up in a format that gets your employees up to speed quicker, consistently and accurately, so that they can start making you money.

Whether you need a quick-start guide, an employee manual, a video, or a full course (or courses), Backbeat Agency can deliver it.

Categories
Process

Reducing Friction

baked ham with rosemary rye bread
Sliced ham

Image by timolina on Freepik

What is friction, and why should you care?

In driving, friction is very important. It’s why your car comes to a stop when you stomp on the brakes. This is generally regarded as a good thing. However, in business, friction is quite bad. Friction is anything that creates a barrier or a roadblock towards your customer being able to complete their transaction with you. This can motivate the customer to leave you, sometimes for good.

What causes friction? Usually it’s the result of a poorly thought out or poorly implemented business process. In some cases, friction is intentionally designed into the process (usually in the case of canceling your service). In most cases though, it happens by accident. It is usually the result of the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset.

Business processes, along with IT systems and processes, exist to solve a specific business problem, with very specific parameters and conditions. When those conditions change, we fail to adjust the processes.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating for anarchy, nor am I suggesting that the Agile methodology is perfect (although it is more friendly towards the ever present changes that will occur whether or not you planned for them.)

Process is important. It helps in onboarding new employees, provides guidelines for how to do things in a consistent manner when we are under severe pressure. It’s useful. It’s also changeable. This is the part that people forget about. 

The old joke about the wife cutting off the end of the ham (because her mother always did it) illustrates this perfectly. So what does this have to do with friction?  Sometimes, our process that we make our employees follow (in the pursuit of productivity) gets in the way of the customer experience (who couldn’t care less about your organizational structure).

We need to periodically examine our processes and determine if the requirements have changed, thus necessitating a change in the processes. This means that your documentation on those processes will also need to be changed. If this is something that you need done, please contact me at backbeatagency@gmail.com. I’m here to help.

Categories
Uncategorized

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