Your Checklist to Create an Impressive Training and Development Manager Onboarding Plan

Training and development managers shape the biggest asset of the company - employees.  Thus, creating an effective training and development manager onboarding plan for your company is critical to success. 

But, effective onboarding is way more than just the necessary tools and resources to thrive in their new roles. 

Most people agree that onboarding is vital in an employee's journey. However, a study found that only 12% of employees believe their organizations onboard new hires effectively. 

Let's take your organization to include in that 12%. 

A well-prepared onboarding plan can make all the difference in getting your team off to a strong start and helping them hit the ground running from day one. 

Fortunately, creating a high-quality onboarding program isn't as hard as you might think. 

We'll look at some vital elements of the training and development manager onboarding plan that will: 

• Help new hires gain essential knowledge quickly. 
• Encourage collaboration among peers across different departments. 

✈️  Why is onboarding important for training and development managers?

Onboarding new employees smoothly can make all the difference!

Onboarding is integral for training and development managers as it brings role clarity and sets the tone for the strategy and goals of your L&D framework.

They play a pivotal role in developing the skills of new employees joining the team and those already working in the organization. 

Managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units, records Gallup in their business journal. 

To achieve goals and strategic objectives, they need to have their finger on the pulse, aligning with the broader business strategy environment. 

📝 Training and development manager onboarding 30-60-90 day plan template

Onboarding your training and development managers with clear milestones, realistic expectations, and immense training can make their journey instrumental in transitioning into their new role.

Use this 30-60-90 day plan checklist to onboard your training and development managers.

Preboarding

Preboarding is like warming up new employees for their new job and leaving the first impression on them after they complete their onboarding documentation. 

Focus on bringing excitement, clarity, and confidence during preboarding. 

The key elements of preboarding are:

✅ Sending a welcome kit 

A welcome kit should make your new hire feel accepted and appreciated. This kit includes company items and helpful resources that motivate them for their new journey.

✅ Sending a welcome message

Help them know about their workplace by sending a welcome message that:

• Provides them with the details of their team
• Shows the company culture 
• Gives information about their schedule, time, and location
• Offers them to ask open questions

✅ Build relationships 

Build a connection with your new employee by keeping a fun corner in the onboarding process. 

Some fun activities include inviting them for lunch, sending them goodies, including them in games, or setting up a coffee date.

The preboarding process allows new hires to warm up to their new workplace.

Unsure of what to include in your preboarding journey? Use our Preboarding template to excite your new hires.

Day 1

Give your new training and development manager an exciting start.

✅ Greet them with a warm welcome and celebrate with team introductions. Go on lunch, build connections and encourage them to share on social media. 

✅ Provide them access to hardware, tools, access card/ID, and keys they need.

✅ Introduce them to their onboarding buddy, who will walk them through their onboarding process.

✅ Take them through an orientation that includes the company's goals, projects, processes, teams, and departments, and finalize admin work. 

First 30 days

"Having short, virtual coffees with a different person every day for the first month will help recruits find their bearings and gain valuable insights going forward," says Mimi Moore, CEO of exeCoaching International.

During the first month, help your new hire settle and understand their role. 

In the first week

✅ 1:1 conversations: Set expectations and discuss how you'll work together. 

✅ Attend meetings: Ensure they attend all relevant meetings in the first week of onboarding. 

✅ Focus on role clarity: Establish role clarity by explaining their roles and responsibilities as training and development manager.

✅ Completing formalities: Provide the company's compliance policies, sign off with them, and complete all onboarding documentation.

✅ Assign their first task: One task can be to evaluate all the existing training resources in your organization.

✅ Communicate plan: Let them know their 30-60-90 day plan and goals they need to accomplish.

✅ Improve soft skills: As training managers are responsible for leading, motivating, training, and encouraging their team, they must have strong soft skills. So, coach them on their soft skills from day 1. 

✅ Appreciate and celebrate: Show appreciation for the tasks completed by them and celebrate the success of their first week to motivate them for more.

After one week

✅ Align with business strategy: As they're responsible for designing effective training and development programs, they need to be aligned with the business strategy.

✅ Updates from onboarding buddy: Check in with their onboarding buddy about their work and provide guidance accordingly.

✅ Upskill every day: Provide helpful tips and focus on upskilling one step ahead daily.

✅ Collect feedback: Ask for their feedback on the onboarding process. 

By the end of the first month, they will be aligned with the business strategy and start participating in training and development programs.

First 60 days

After the initial orientation period, your training and development manager will move on to the next stage. During this period:

✅ Expand their role-related training: By now, they have settled in and understand your business strategy. It's time to expand their role-related training to fasten upskilling.

➡️ Need suggestions for training? Check out 15 best practices for training new employees.

✅ Review the first month and coach: It's time to check their performance using employee onboarding metrics and coach accordingly. 

✅ Updates with onboarding buddy: Check in with their onboarding buddy about what's going well and what's not.

First 90 days

At this point, they are well-aligned with the business strategy as well as started working on designing training and development programs. 

Now is an excellent opportunity to focus on three key elements: development, feedback, and including them in strategic decision-making. 

✅ Continuous development: Promote their growth and development through continuous learning and effective employee development plans.

✅ Collect and provide feedback: Ask for their feedback on the onboarding process and check in with their onboarding buddy. Also, give your new employee feedback to get a productive start after the onboarding process. 

✅ Include them in strategic thinking: At this stage, you can include your onboarding training and development manager to take part in strategic thinking. Their suggestions can help your company with positive results in the future.

💡 Looking for more inspiration? Check out 15+ additional onboarding templates. With topics like onboarding presentation, new hire training plan, bussy selection survey, we can guarantee there is something for you.

👀 What does an effective training and development manager onboarding process look like?

Effective onboarding is the first impression of the organization. 

To make your employees' journey exceptional, it's essential to go beyond the traditional onboarding experience process that focuses only on giving out employee handbooks and tools. 

Your new T&D manager should enjoy an enhanced experience that excites, engages, supports, organizes, congratulates, prepares, and re-engages them with new hires.

Consider the 5Cs and 4 phases to effectively onboard your training and development manager. 

The 5 Cs of onboarding include:

✅ compliance and paperwork;

✅ clarification of responsibilities;

✅ culture at the workplace;

✅ connection with colleagues;

✅ check back at regular intervals.

➡️ Is your People Operations department growing at the speed of sound? Check out onboarding plans for recruiters and training supervisors.

➡️ Automate your onboarding with Zavvy. Your new hires will thank you for it!

Are you ready to put in time and effort for a smooth onboarding?

You'll need the right approach to do it well. But onboarding is not a once-and-done process. You'll also need to update it with time.

So, how can you make it easy for your organization? Just automate. 😉

At Zavvy, we focus on delivering an exceptional onboarding experience without hassling into manual work. 

We will help you to bring efficiency, consistency, and a better welcome to your organization.

Your training and development managers are responsible for the L&D program that affects the skills and knowledge of their team. Give them an exceptional experience.

We know onboarding is crucial and how to do it effectively. 

Create an outstanding experience on the first day with preboarding software and deliver an immense and engaging experience with our innovative onboarding software.

➡️ Book a demo to discover how our automated onboarding tool will take your onboarding to the next level.