Forget Training: New Hires Need Coaching, Not Classes

When onboarding new hires in the software realm, the age-old reflex is to run them through a gauntlet of comprehensive training sessions. Hours of lectures, videos, and maybe even a quiz or two to ensure that the information was absorbed. While there’s merit in understanding a product or service, this traditional paradigm of education may be stunting the real growth and acclimatization of new team members. Here's a hot take: They don't need training; they need coaching.

Learning vs. Experiencing

Firstly, let's differentiate between the two. Traditional training, while invaluable in certain situations, can be passive. Trainees are often relegated to the role of listeners, absorbing knowledge without the application. It's like reading a book about swimming but never jumping into the water. On the contrary, coaching focuses on the actual application of the knowledge. Coaches guide, suggest, and challenge, empowering new hires to swim through challenges rather than just read about them.

Jumping Right In

Get their hands on a keyboard. Let them be a part of a real customer call, even if it's in a shadowing capacity. Allow them to come up with improvements and innovations based on their experiences. When new hires are permitted to immerse themselves into the daily operations of the business, they quickly adapt to the environment and develop a genuine understanding of what’s expected of them.

Moreover, it instills a sense of ownership. They aren't just executing tasks but are actively contributing to the organization's objectives.

The Curriculum Quandary

Now, I'm not advocating for throwing out the curriculum entirely. Knowledge of the product, its features, and its unique selling points is essential. However, diving too deep into every minute detail from day one can overwhelm and even disinterest new hires. The more crucial question to address during onboarding is: What will they do? Once they understand their role, the intricacies can be picked up as they move forward.

Of course, there's a balance. Sending a new hire out unprepared can damage customer trust, and the "sheep amidst the wolves" strategy is a fast track to disgruntlement. That's why a hybrid approach works best. Start with the very bare essentials and the bigger picture, then allow for hands-on experience, with a coach guiding them through their initial days and weeks.

Skill Recognition: The Cornerstone of Effective Onboarding

In the fervor to champion coaching over traditional training, one thing mustn't get lost in translation: the importance of skills measurement and recognition. Assessing an individual's present skills is more than just a routine HR exercise. It's about understanding what an employee brings to the table, right from day one.

Many companies fall into the trap of offering a "one-size-fits-all" onboarding process. The assumption is that of tabula rasa: that every new hire is a blank slate. However, this couldn't be farther from the truth. Each person joining your team has a unique blend of experiences, proficiencies, and perspectives. Recognizing and leveraging this can supercharge their induction process.

Take the case of an incoming engineer. If they're already fluent in the programming language, familiar with tools like git, and have a track record of successful projects, plunging them into a detailed codebase tutorial could be counterproductive. Such an exercise might appear redundant, boring, or even condescending to a seasoned professional. It's like giving an award-winning novelist a lesson in basic grammar.

Instead, the focus should be on application. If they understand the tools, then the next question becomes, "How can you apply this knowledge to our specific environment, culture, and product?" Instead of deep diving into every line of code, orient them to the architecture, the nuances of your system, and the challenges that the team has faced. Let them know the history, but more importantly, give them a vision of the future and how they fit into it. Give them a north star, and let them chart the journey.

This approach achieves two things:

1. Immediate Value Addition: By tapping into what they already know and guiding them to apply it effectively, new hires can contribute faster. They're not stuck in a perpetual learning phase, but are hands-on, solving problems and pushing updates. After all, developers join open source projects and begin contributing all the time; where was the formal education curriculum there?

2. Motivation & Confidence Boost: Recognizing and acknowledging an individual’s pre-existing skills and ability to solve problems without didactic instruction boosts their confidence. It sends a clear message: "We value what you bring, and we trust you to make a difference."

The process of skills measurement is essentially asking, "Based on what you know today, what's the next step for tomorrow?" It's a dynamic, evolving roadmap tailored to each employee, focusing on continuous growth rather than rote learning.

While the heart of this article rests on the switch from traditional training to coaching, it's imperative that this coaching is grounded in a thorough understanding of individual skill sets. Only then can we truly unlock the potential of our new hires and set them and our organization on the path to success.

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