3 Tips For Effectively Training New Employees On Complicated Equipment or Processes

 

If you run a business that has a lot of complicated equipment or processes that your employees have to take part in on a regular basis, you’ll want to do everything in your power to ensure that everyone is doing their job correctly and keeping themselves and everyone else safe. This usually comes with experience. So when you’re hiring a new employee, it’s vital that you teach them the right ways to do things for your company, since the last thing you want to do is have someone get hurt due to rotating the centrifugal pumps correctly or misusing another vital piece of equipment. 

To assist you with this, here are three tips for effectively training new employees on complicated equipment or processes.  

Set Clear Expectations

Upon hiring a new employee and setting out to begin with training, the very first thing you should do is set clear expectations about how they are to operate and the equipment they are responsible for. If you expect them to know everything about how something runs, make sure they know that this is part of their job description.

To ensure that your expectations are met, set goals for them to have a certain level of understanding by one, two, and three months. This way, your new employee can see how well they are getting a handle on their new job and you can see if they’re going to be able to handle the equipment and processes you have them set to work with. 

Consider Starting With An Employee Shadowing Experience

When you and your new employee are ready for them to start really learning the new equipment or processes that they’ll be responsible for, one great way to help them get some exposure to this in a non-intrusive way is to have them shadow another employee with a lot of experience in this. 

Through employee shadowing experiences, your new employee can learn the tips and tricks about how to do their job well by seeing how it’s done by an expert. Then, if they have questions, they can ask the employee who’s likely had those same questions and has figured out how to work through them. 

Leave Room For Innovation

When you bring in someone new to the company who has the experience you need but needs a little bit more training on certain things specific to your company, they’re going to be coming in with their own experiences and ideas about things. Sometimes, you’ll have figured everything out before they arrive and there will be no need to innovate. But if your new employee thinks they can get the job done how you need it but in a way that works better for them, consider allowing room for innovation if possible. 

If you want your new employees to always be effectively trained as they join your company, consider using the tips mentioned above to help the most complicated parts of your business be learned quickly and efficiently.