New New Employee Training

Years ago, my co-founder Jack and I developed a training presentation to give to new employees who were not just new to Return Path but also new to the workforce.  This is another one of those things, like my last post on our sabbatical policy, that people ask me for all the time.

Bringing new people into the workforce is different from just bringing new people into an organization.  I know I got a huge amount of value in my first job in management consulting from just learning how to go to work every day and how to be successful professionally.  The process you need to go through is like Onboarding, but on steroids.

Not everyone has parents or older siblings or role models who work in business — or for that matter, who focus on any kind of workplace mentoring.  It may sound dumb, but even things like showing up on time for work, what to wear, and how to meet with your manager aren’t necessarily obvious even to smart and well-intentioned 21-year olds.

So with the caveats that it’s a little dated as is, and that it’s more relevant to the kind of company we are at Return Path (e.g., we serve business clients), here’s a SlideShare version of the presentation.

Feel free to plagiarize, customize, and share it from here if you’re interested.