New Starter Ideas

Feb 10, 2012

Hi all, I am looking for some inspiration for a new hire course. Originally I thought about a twitter feed with a new starter asking questions but this has been vetoed as we don't want to encourage our staff to discuss our business on social networking sites as its viewed as too risky. Next I thought about using the floor plan idea of toms with some scenario based interactions e.g. HR, IT, Customer Services etc... Does anyone have any successful New Starter themes or experiences they could share? many thanks, Louise

p.s. Anyone else attending the London workshop in May? 

10 Replies
Natalia Mueller

Louise Fairman said:

 Does anyone have any successful New Starter themes or experiences they could share? many thanks, Louise

Hi Louise!

Are you looking for new hire themes for each department? Or things a new hire may need to know about interacting with each department?

This may not be what you meant, but some topics that come to mind (by department) are

HR topics:

Dress code

The correct procedure for _____

How to put in a remedy ticket for tech problems

What tools (software/hardware/etc) they will use in their role, how they will learn to use them, where to go for help or resources

Company history

Expectations for _____

Scenarios can be great for compliance courses covering policies that may have gray areas - Company dating, harassment, discrimination, etc

Customer service topics:

Active listening

Dealing with upset customers

Scenario examples that have really occurred at your company

Internal/external correspondence (proper email etiquette) 

Internal customer service

Overcoming objections (sales and negotiation)

IT:

courses/resources for dept tools

Internal customer service

What you know VS. what the average customer knows (a comparison course that points out terminology and topics that can create confusion between IT and customers)

I'm going to stop there because I'm not entirely sure this is what you were asking for

Louise Greenhoff

Thanks Natalia - thats given me lots of content ideas.

I suppose what I am "stuck" with is more the creative and visual look to go for. I like using "themes" e.g.

  • for Anti Money Laundering I am using a "secret agent/safe cracker" theme with a secret password to answer the final question (as mentioned on this forum - thanks!),
  • for Brand awareness I am taking a "tour" around our global operation where you collect stamps in your passport

For the new hires, I am working on a floor plan/overhead office theme with each department showing as per Tom's PowerPoint template then branching into some scenarios for each department - Was looking for some alternative ideas

Natalia Mueller

Sorry Louise. I had a feeling I missed the mark on that one. Oh well. Maybe it will be of some help to someone else  

Love the ideas for the other courses you listed. I really liked your twitter feed idea too, but I know how that goes. Do you have office IM? 

I wish I could remember where I saw it (maybe someone here will) but I saw something Tom K made once that was set up like an office IM. That could be a way to work in your original idea.

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