Train To Retain: Investing In Your Greatest Asset

Learning needs to be ongoing, intentional, nurtured, challenged and committed

You’ve been on the road for hours. You’re road-worn, tired, hungry – hangry, even – and desperately need a restroom. Your weary eyes search desperately for a beacon of hope, of respite. 

Finally …

The clouds part, a choir of angels sings and you immediately feel the tension in your shoulders ease.

Is it because you love chicken sandwiches? Maybe. Is it because waffle fries are superior to fries of any other shape? Could be.

But what that sign really tells you is that you’re about to have a very predictable experience. It will be predictably clean, delicious, consistent and pleasant – and you know there exist few other roadside options that boast the same.

Unsurprisingly, that kind of experience doesn’t just happen. Sure, a rigorous and highly selective hiring process helps to find The One for the role you need to fill. And granted, it takes time. A lot of time. 

But it also takes an organization committed to excellence that is seriously intentional about training and onboarding. 

At BELAY, we hold ourselves to that same standard. A standard of excellence. Of highly selective exclusivity. Of intentionality. And all this regardless of the role The One will play in our organization. 

Everyone gets the same consistent experience. 

And if our new-hire training provides the foundation for our employee’s initial learning, career development, continued learning and retention are the brick-and-mortar built upon that foundation. 

We think of training as only the first step to equipping our employees with the necessary skills and knowledge they need to perform the functions of their role as a BELAY employee. 

But it doesn’t – can’t – stop there.

Because in order to reap role-specific benefits, we also focus on sustained learning to achieve maximum retention.

Known as the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, the ‘science of forgetting’ suggests that within one hour, people forget an average of 50 percent of the information presented, 70 percent within 24 hours, and 90 percent within a week.

So what can be done to spark the brain science of retention?

Continued training and development.

And it all starts with me, the CEO. 

Our top-down approach to our training means that I’m responsible for communicating a narrowly defined business priority that will dictate and inform our training priorities.

Next, our supporting managers inform our training through employee-engagement-driven direction from annual surveys, quarterly check-ins and more. Our boots-on-the-ground – our in-house SMEs, if you will – know exactly what we need, where we need it and when we need it as the ‘subject matter experts’ based on the specifics for the role for which they've hired.

And the one tie that binds all our trainees? Consistency. We work tirelessly to ensure that no matter what team you join at BELAY, you receive a consistent training experience. 

It will be exhaustive. It will be thorough. It will be unconditionally supportive. It will be your sole ‘job’ for your first three weeks.

We use countless opportunities and methods to train our employees. From online courses to required reading to scheduled one-on-one video calls with everyone on your team, our approach to training is holistic and multidimensional. 

You like videos? We’ve got ‘em. 
You like reading? You’re covered. 
You like engaging with people? Say no more.

Why?

Because we recognize that it’s mission-critical to first understand how, exactly, people learn. It’s a science, after all. 

In fact, according to the Harvard Business Review, organizations spend roughly $164.2 billion on learning and development programs – but fail to make the connection between how the brain processes information and the best tools to deliver that information.

So we intentionally tailor our pedagogy, curriculum, and learning environments to meet the needs and learning styles of every employee, affording each small moment of learning that will, in turn, drive job performance and development. 

Our training ‘secret menu’ then includes – but is not limited to:
 

New hire training combines the collaborative efforts of HR, IT, and the Hiring Manager to curate a new hire's onboarding experience. One hand washes the other so every ‘village’ commits to every employee’s success.

We create forums and promote the webinars and IT provides the content 

In order to provide continuous professional development to our teams, we identify specific needs or gaps and then develop training to support that initiative quarterly.

Maybe someone is a visual or audio learner so for them, we curate content that they can easily access. Someone discovers a good book? We can add it. An amazing podcast? That goes here, too.

Many of our teams have their own Process Documents that guide employees through any step they might need to take in their day-to-day

From the year-long Ascend Leadership Academy for future leaders to Carey Nieuhoff's High Impact Leader training for current leaders, we make sure our executives lead by example as we all commit to continued excellence.  

 

To truly achieve ‘training excellence,’ there is no – and can be no – set-it-and-forget-it option.

In work and life, it’s natural to want to achieve ‘autopilot’ – a neutral mental setting that is familiar, safe and relatively disengaged. When we disconnect from the process of learning and become so fixated on the outcome, we miss opportunities to learn and grow along the way. 

Learning is a living, breathing experience that needs to be ongoing, intentional, nurtured, challenged and committed. For us, learning is the journey – not a destination – and we are committed to always sharpening our axes.