We expect a lot out of people. When somebody starts working with us, I want them to leave the first day feeling confident they can keep up with the learning pace. I think it's better to build up to those expectations than overwhelm somebody before they've had a chance to get started.
That's why I don't rush orientation. It sets the tone for what a new employee expects from the job, including whether they feel comfortable asking for help. How we bring somebody in starts building the culture they'll be working in.
Start with what they need today
Day one is mostly the basic stuff. We make sure their information is correct in the system and get them logged into everything. Then we show them where to find information.
The first two days are about questions like: Where do I find what I need? Who do I talk to? Who are my trainers? When I have a question, where do I look, and who can help me?
I want somebody to know those things before we build up the work. Otherwise, I could put everything in front of them at once and leave them overwhelmed by how much there is to learn. That sets the wrong precedent.
By the end of orientation and training, people are doing way more than they thought they'd be able to do. We work up to it. Getting logged in gives them a place to start, and knowing where to find information gives them a way to handle the next thing.
I think about it the way a builder thinks about a house. Before the cinder block or the slab, is the lot prepared? Is the dirt good? Did we take the samples to make sure we're building on a solid foundation?
For a new employee, that foundation includes knowing how to get help. I want that in place before the demands of the job increase.
Ask whether they're ready
I ask people directly how they're feeling about what we're going over.
"How do you feel about this? Do you feel confident? Are you ready to move on to the next thing?"
Sometimes I tell them, "Don't just tell me what I want to hear. Do you really understand it? If you don't understand it, let's go back over it."
I want an honest answer so we can decide whether to move on or spend more time on something. I don't want them feeling like they have to say yes because I'm the person asking.
That's especially important during those first 30 days of orientation and training. I need to be accessible, and the trainer needs to be accessible. People need to ask questions while they're learning how we work.
Even though I'm the COO, I want anybody with a question to feel comfortable coming to me. My title shouldn't make somebody afraid to ask for help.
Show them how to find an answer
We also give people tools they can return to when they need help. FM Ally is the chatbot inside our FM Allies time clock app. They can ask it a question or ask it to pull up a standard operating procedure and show them where the document is.
I show them our Knowledge Center, where our policies and procedures live. At any point, they can go back and read the documentation. They have somewhere to look when they need to revisit something from training.
Showing somebody where that information lives is part of orientation, and so is introducing them to people they can turn to. A buddy or a trainer can help them work through something they haven't encountered before.
The biggest thing I tell people is that there are no dumb questions. The only dumb questions are the ones you don't ask. Ask as many questions as you can. I want them to hear this from the beginning and feel comfortable doing it. During training, they should be able to tell us when they don't understand something and trust we'll go over it with them.
People helping people
Often, someone can run into a question and find the answer without bringing it to me. They know where to look and who to reach out to, so I may never see the question they had to work through.
They might ask a buddy, a trainer, or somebody else in the company. They use the tools and the people around them to find the answer and keep working. Everything doesn't have to come back to the manager.
That's the confidence I see as people move through training. They're willing to rely on each other to get work done. Asking a question is part of how the work gets done here.
I believe the way we train people and build up to the work helps them learn quicker and stay with us. Our hiring process has a lot to do with that too. We put time into finding people who are a good fit, then give them a way to learn the job without dropping everything on them at once.
For me, that starts on the first day. Before somebody knows how to do everything, they can learn that the people around them will help them find an answer. When they reach something unfamiliar later, they already know who to ask.
