In this article, we discuss how to tackle common employee onboarding scenarios with features in the 360Learning platform. No matter which phase of design/creation you’re in, we have a solution to help you set your new hires up for success.
Here are the specific steps and needs we cover:
- Step 1: Design your onboarding program
- Step 2: Create and update onboarding content
- Step 3: Automate onboarding administration
- Step 4: Track onboarding success and support new joiners
- Step 5: Ship best-in-class onboarding experiences to your learners
Step 1: Design your onboarding program
Two items that L&D teams need to accomplish when designing an onboarding program are identifying the most critical training needs of their organization and identifying existing experts on those topics.
Identify training needs
Identifying the right onboarding topics help L&D teams provide new joiners with an experience that both boosts their engagement and optimizes their productivity.
| Scenario | 360Learning Solution |
| I’m building an onboarding program from scratch. How do I get started? |
No approach is one size fits all. Consulting onboarding best practices and doing some discoveries within your company will help pinpoint the right one for your program. Here are some resources to get started:
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| How do I identify existing knowledge gaps in our current onboarding program? |
Allow users to submit learning needs. Create custom learning need forms with titles and questions specific to your groups. |
| Other internal teams send in a lot of training requests and ideas, but our team has to ask a lot of follow-up questions to get all the info they need. | Create custom learning need forms to guide coworkers as they send training requests. |
Identify team experts
Onboarding training contains a wide variety of topics and requires a lot of time (that L&D doesn’t always have) to create. Identifying SMEs (subject matter experts) allows L&D teams to make the most of their time by decentralizing content creation.
| Scenario | 360Learning Solution |
| How do I quickly identify internal subject matter experts? |
When creating a learning need, users can suggest internal subject matter experts. Users can proactively volunteer to help with a learning need. |
| I’m having a team outside of L&D create onboarding courses, but I need to make sure they send them to us for review. | Guide group admins with a custom project template for onboarding projects. |
| We have authors from several teams helping us create content. How do I make sure everyone uses the same standards? | Guide group admins with a custom project template for onboarding projects. |
| Some onboarding content is department/role specific or requires specific knowledge. How do I make sure everything is accurate? |
Let subject matter experts proactively update onboarding content by setting them up as group authors. To keep reviews in the same place, create a project for onboarding content. |
Step 2: Create and update onboarding content
After you’ve identified key learning needs, you can start creating content. You’ll also need efficient ways to update and improve the content.
Create relevant content for each team
Because of their on-the-job experience, team experts understand what learning needs new joiners often have. They’re well-positioned to create and deliver the content on time.
| Scenario | 360Learning Solution |
| I'm completely new to creating onboarding training. What's the best way to start creating courses? | Use our Onboarding course template to get started! |
| How do I add training that's going to be instructor-led training? | Add an in-person or virtual classroom to your onboarding path. |
| Our content needs to be available in multiple languages. What’s the best way to translate everything? | Use the translation tools that come with the Globalization Solution. |
| We ask a lot of internal stakeholders for feedback on new onboarding training. Is there a way to compile or keep track of everyone’s feedback? | Create a new project for the new onboarding training, add your stakeholders as team members, and create review tasks for them. |
| I need to make sure new joiners complete their onboarding training in a particular order. |
Create a linear path for your learners. You can also make parts of a path linear and other parts non-linear by adding “sub-paths” as steps within your path sessions. |
| Because they may have already trained on certain topics, some of the onboarding training is optional. | If training is optional, add it as an optional path step in your onboarding program. |
| How do I organize my program in the platform if I’m dealing with a large mix of optional and required content? |
Individual courses, programs, and (other) paths can be steps, allowing you to create the perfect blend. Not sure if a path meets all your onboarding needs? Our program templates might be a better fit. |
Update and improve existing content
To increase new joiner engagement, team experts need to keep content relevant through regular updates.
| Scenario | 360Learning Solution |
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If a new joiner sends me feedback on onboarding training, how do I make sure authors see it? |
Course authors get email notifications when learners comment or react to their courses. When editing a course, authors see learners' comments on the specific part of the course they are working on. |
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Before making updates, how do we tell if the current version of a course is effective? |
Course reactions allow learners to give real-time feedback like “I learned something” or “This is outdated.” Authors, Coaches, Group Admins, and Platform Admins can view info on the Reaction Score directly in the course dashboard. See a low/red Reaction Score that hasn’t been addressed? Send the author a message to get the ball rolling on that. |
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Want to share an example of an excellent video presentation with your new joiners? |
Share previously submitted video pitches or screencast demos with them directly in a course or group post. |
Step 3: Automate administrative onboarding tasks
On top of creating the content for your onboarding program, there are several administrative tasks you’ll need to manage. Here are some items that you can automate:
- Creating and managing new users
- Sharing onboarding content
Create and manage new users
There are a few ways you can approach user management scenarios in 360Learning to maximize your time.
| Scenario | 360Learning Solution |
| I need to ensure the user info in our training platform matches what we have in our HR system. |
Instead of manually adding new hires, you can sync data directly from your HR system. We have integrations available with the following systems: Don’t use one of these HR systems? You can also contact your Account Manager about setting up an integration through our Universal Connector. |
| How do I save time on user creation if I don’t have any integrations? aren’t an option, but you still need to save time on new user account creation. | Add new users in bulk through the CSV import file. The import file also lets you assign groups and custom fields to users. |
| Is it possible to let non-admin users help us enter new user data? |
Yes! Identify users who can act as User Admins in their groups. This permission allows users to manage users in a group without access to the content or other admin settings. |
Share onboarding content
Whatever point they’re at in the onboarding journey, there are several ways to share content with learners in 360Learning.
| Scenario | 360Learning Solution |
| Need to assign all your newcomers to the onboarding training quickly, but they’re in a mix of different groups? | Create a user custom field for this onboarding class! The learner filter in both program and path sessions lets you filter by custom fields. |
| How do I make sure all of our new joiners are added to the onboarding training that has online or in-person classrooms? | Enable the automatic registration setting to automatically assign new learners to the next open classroom slot when they are enrolled in the path. |
Step 4: Track onboarding progress and completion
As new joiners progress through onboarding, it’s important for L&D teams and managers to:
- Keep track of their progress
- Provide them with support
Track onboarding progress and completion
Keep track of the progress of onboarding groups with a few out-of-the-box and custom reporting.
| Scenario | 360Learning Solution |
| I need to get view a high-level overview of an onboarding group's progress. |
View the group’s onboarding path session data from the path dashboard. Using a program for your onboarding training? The program sessions dashboard also has detailed stats. |
| How do I track attendance for in-person or virtual sessions? | Use the classroom dashboard to:
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| How do I ensure learners recieve the automated training notifications? |
Advise new joiners to have keep their email notifications enabled. sure your team has the right email notifications turned on. To receive updates on assigned training, they need to enable this Trainings notification: Reminder to complete a training. |
| How do I remind new joiners that they have outstanding onboarding training? |
You can send reminders to your new joiners directly from the path sessions and statistics page. Using a program for your onboarding training? You can also send reminders from the program session page. |
| I need to compare the current onboarding group's progress to previous new joiners. | There are a couple of ways you can view this data: |
| How can I find the data I need if it isn't part of a pre-built dashboard? | Create and export the data you need with custom reports. |
| Can I automatically send myself onboarding reports? | Scheduled exports isn't currently available, but it's coming soon! |
Empower managers to track progress and support new joiners
Managers have a few tools in 360Learning to track progress and help their new joiners complete their onboarding training.
| Scenario | 360Learning Solution |
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Our managers often need to quickly send training to new joiners on their team. |
Add courses to group libraries to let authors and coaches autonomously share courses. |
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What's the best way for managers to check the progress of their team members? |
The manager dashboard compiles statistics for each team member on trainings in which they self-enrolled or were assigned. |
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How can I let a team member know if they've forgotten to complete a course? |
Managers can send reminders to their team members directly from the dashboard. |
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Managers must use consistent standards to evaluate how a new joiner presents a topic. |
Create assessment criteria for video pitch and screencast demo course questions. |
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As a manager, how do I see if my current new joiners are completing training at the same level as previous new joiners? |
On the manager dashboard, change the default time frame to see how previous new joiners performed. |
Step 5: Ship best-in-class onboarding experiences to your learners
Woo your new employees by shipping personalized onboarding experiences that will help them connect the dots faster and reduce their ramp-up time.
Personalize the onboarding experience
Not all learning journeys look the same. Make sure your new joiners' training reflects their unique job and experience level.
| Scenario | 360Learning Solution |
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How do I make sure onboarders know where to start their onboarding training? |
On top of sending new joiners an email before they start outlining what they can expect from their day one, we recommend writing a strong path description that includes links to helpful resources. |
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Where can new joiners go to check what training they need to complete day-to-day? |
In the My work section of their homepage, new joiners can see what training they need to work on in these two lists:
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I need to make sure new joiners complete their onboarding training in a particular order. |
Create a linear path for your learners. You can also make parts of a path linear and other parts non-linear by adding “sub-paths” as steps within your path sessions. |
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Because they may have already trained on certain topics, some of ur onboarding training is optional. How do we let new joiners autonomously skip those trainings? |
Add it as an optional path step. |
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How do I organize my program in the platform if I'm dealing with a large mix of optional and required content? |
Individual courses, programs, and (other) paths can be steps, allowing you to create the perfect blend. Not sure if a path meets all your onboarding needs? Our program templates might be a better fit. |
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Some of our training needs to be completed within a certain timeframe. How do I make sure new joiners know that? |
Set relative due dates and add time limits through path step options. |
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Some teams complete onboarding training on a shared mobile device. |
Make your onboarding content available through shared mode. |
Instill human connection
Bring a community feel to your onboarding content with interactive learning spaces.
| Scenario | 360Learning Solution |
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Async training is great, but we want to have some instructor-led training. How do I add that to the program? |
Add an in-person or virtual classroom to your onboarding path. |
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Video presentations are a big part of our onboarding evaluations. What's the best way to share an example of an excellent video presentation with new joiners? |
Share previously submitted video pitches or screencast demos with them either directly in a course or a group post. |
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New joiners need a place to reach out to team members with general questions and feedback. |
Learners can share their questions and successes at a group level using any format. Have a post you want to make sure new joiners see? Pin it to the top of the newsfeed. |
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How do we get questions from new joiners to the right members of the team? |
As they’re taking courses, new joiners can ask in-house experts and other learners questions directly in the course forum. |
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How will learners make connections during async training? |
On top of connecting with team members in group newsfeeds, new joiners can ask in-house experts and other learners questions directly in courses. Course reactions also allow learners to give real-time feedback like “I learned something” or “This is outdated.” |
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Managers or team members need to quickly send training to new joiners on their team. |
Add courses to group libraries to let coaches autonomously share courses. |
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New joiners need training for a topic they encountered during onboarding |
To let learners access courses autonomously access courses outside of a path or program session add courses to their group catalogs. |
Want more onboarding tips? Check out our blog!