Training and Development Checklist
How to Develop a New Employee Training and Development Plan
What’s a training and development plan and why do you need it?
Training and development plans are programmes that help employees improve their skills for enhanced productivity as well as satisfaction with their jobs, which leads to better employee retention.
In this article, we’ll focus on plans for new staff and even provide a training and development checklist that you can download for free.
Key Steps to Creating a Training and Development Plan
Establish your training procedures and subjects for new hires
This means clarifying what new employees in particular need to be trained in first. Creating a new hire training checklist can help keep you on track, so we’ve prepared a free downloadable checklist for this at the bottom of the article.
Ensure that all managers are aware of the training programme
This doesn’t just mean asking them to participate in the training plan. It also means getting managers’ input on what the training should involve and the priority for training topics.
Use best practices in your training
These include varied learning methods (going beyond lectures, for instance), allowing people time for breaks in between sessions, and allowing for some degree of flexibility in individual training.
Train for culture, not just technical skills and SOPs
Try to inform your new hires of the values and ideas that go into everyday decisions at your company. This helps them better align what they learn and their implementation of it with the organisation’s character as a whole.
Use feedback to continuously improve your training programme
It’s important to continually refine this process, especially as the scope of work for certain roles and even work arrangements may change over time. Training also doesn’t technically end within the first month or two, as this can be an ongoing process stretched out over as long as 9 months.
A Checklist for the First 30-90 Days of New Hire
To make your life easier, here is an easy reference on the things to do to smoothly facilitate a training and development programme that will help new hires at your workplace.
See our other templates
We have other templates available like job description templates and onboarding guides, so take a look at them too.
