In past years, one of real estate company Gables Residential’s biggest struggles was delivering new hire training and onboarding information in a relevant timeframe. All new hire training was instructor led, which posed a challenge as the company does not have Training & Development (T&D) professionals in every region. New hires often would have to wait anywhere from two to four weeks before they could attend new hire training. By that time, those new hires weren’t new anymore and had already discovered most things on their own.
To address this, Gables Residential condensed its onboarding program into an online, self-paced, mixed-media learning program. It starts on each associate’s first day of work and creates an opportunity for him or her to begin learning immediately.
Program Details
The re-engineered onboarding program consists of company information, assignments, video, sales training, new hire resources, and more. This new program replaced more than 20 hours of required in-class time monthly, which required learners to be away from their workplace, placing a burden on the individual, as well as the business. Today, the new onboarding program allows associates to learn content while on-the-job at a time that is convenient for them to learn. Training can be completed in as little as 20 to 30 minutes per day and is available 24/7.
To further support new hire sales training, Gables Residential’s T&D team now focuses less on training sales in the classroom each month. Instead, the team focuses on sales skill application and coaching. New associates learn the sales concepts and expectations through the online/mobile compatible modules. Afterward, they attend a half-day sales workshop, designed to allow them to practice skills taught in a sales simulation environment, with T&D providing guidance and support. After completing this workshop, associates receive additional one-on-one coaching sessions, focusing on their individual needs.
Lastly, each new associate is assigned a peer mentor. The mentor’s role is to reinforce concepts, procedures, and behaviors on the job.
Results
After one year of implementation in a single market, turnover in onsite office positions has been reduced by 48 percent, and 9 percent of these associates were promoted within their first year. Overall, Gables Residential has seen a 30 percent increase in mentored associates reporting they’ve received appropriate training and support for their career development needs during their first 60 days.
Since launching this new onboarding method, Gables Residential has decreased time to readiness for new employees by up to 60 percent and has reduced required class time to learn critical skills by 74 percent. The company also maintained its top-tier sales quality ranking as measured by a third-party mystery shopping company.
