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A well-trained facilities management team can lead to success for a company.

While new employees come in with their own experiences and sets of skills, they need training to fit the company culture and meet expectations. The time and care an employer takes in training and onboarding an employee can be the difference between employee success and failure, especially in the world of facilities management, where safety and efficiency are top priorities.

If you’re an employer looking to add a few new FMs or vendors to your team, check out these 12 expert tips on onboarding and training.

Get All Paperwork Out of the Way Early

On an employee’s first day, you want the learning to begin right away. Nothing bogs that process down like paperwork that still needs to be completed.

“In addition to saving time on their first day, starting the onboarding program before day one gives the new hire a head start on completing company paperwork and reading up on key documents, enabling them to be more prepared and engaged when they finally begin their new role,” Glen Braunsdorf at business software company iCIMS says.

Stick to a Checklist

If training a group of new hires, and especially if not doing so personally, certain training items can slip through the cracks. In facilities management, where employees must know regulations and take safety precautions, missing a training item or two can be deadly.

David Spence at OfficeSpace Software recommends making a checklist for each new employee and crossing items off as they’re covered in training. Some of the items he says to include are:

• Building schematics and drawings
• Life safety devices
• Various job software and hardware
• Control room buttons and functions
• Rules, regulations and codes for plumbing, electrical and mechanical use

Personally Train Them

Worksite placement coordinator Doreen Bessert spoke to cleaning company CleanLink about her tactics for training FMs.

“The most successful technique seems to be when I work with them myself their first few days on the job before allowing them to shadow and work with others,” Bessert said. “This seems to help alleviate picking up other’s bad habits.”

Get Logical

Employers are very focused on technical training, as it’s the crux of what an FM does. However, Mark Lamendola at Electrical Construction & Maintenance suggests employers invite their new hires to exercise the logical parts of their brains, too.

“People who can logically and methodically think their way through problems tend to solve them,” Lamendola says. “People who lack this ability will try other means. They may mischaracterize the problem just so it fits a solution they already have. They may brute force their way through it, or perhaps they’ll just ignore it so that it festers into a mess that can’t be cleaned up.”

Prioritize Safety

Above all else, the safety of all occupants of the building matters. Safety starts with an FM, who can then make sure the rest of the building is secure.

Therefore, the safety training portion of the program is probably the most important and should be the most in-depth. FMs at the University of Minnesota, for example, must go through a lengthy safety training that encompasses:

• Accident investigations
• Risk management
• Standard operating procedures
• Hazard identification

Employers should consider incorporating these concepts into their own training program.

Have Work for the New Hires to Do

Once the training is over and the new employee starts working, keep them engaged. Brian Westfall at Software Advice says to have an employee booked almost solid for at least a week. Why?

“For one, they’ll never be left wondering what’s next,” Westfall says. “Perhaps most importantly, it also gives the right impression: ‘Trust us. We know what we’re doing.’”

Set the Mood

Training will be as boring as you make it. Don’t be afraid to loosen up a bit.

“Trainees will not be enthusiastic if training sessions are dry and dull,” the Training Today team at Business and Legal Resources writes. “Few employees respond to or remember complicated concepts or theories; they want to learn practical information about what they can do to get better results today. If they don’t find the message entertaining, they won’t retain it.”

Quiz Them

This isn’t grade school, so don’t bother with printed tests. “When doing a walk-through of the facility with your trainee, ask them to explain to you how equipment works,” says engineering recruiter Travis Bergwall. “This will let you pick up on any topics that need to be reinforced. It can also be a good opportunity for your trainee to ask questions.”

Prepare Their Space Ahead of Time

Between paperwork and training, an employer may forget to prepare a new FM’s working space. Sarah White at IT news resource CIO says this is a bad way to make a first impression, albeit an all too common one.

She recommends checking that the office or cubicle is ready with the computer up and running, before the employee’s start date. This includes confirming that the employee has access to all necessary programs and the phone line is working.

Don’t Always Work Alone

Doing all the training yourself can lead to mistakes and omissions. Instead, manufacturing company Siemens suggests letting other key employers like managers get involved. This prevents you from getting overwhelmed with training and allows other staff to get a feel for the new hire.

Offer Other Training Opportunities

If an employer can’t create a sufficient training program at their workplace, there’s nothing wrong with sending new hires elsewhere for training. In fact, according to Maryellen Lo Bosco at FacilitiesNet, this is becoming a common practice. She mentions apprenticeship programs, union training and college courses as viable options.

Get Feedback

After training and onboarding, make sure to ask the employee for feedback regarding how these processes went. This way, the company can do even better for its next round of new hires. Patrick DiDomenico at The HR Specialist offers some sample questions:

“How does it go when your supervisor offers constructive criticism or corrects your work?”

• “How does it go when your supervisor offers constructive criticism or corrects your work?”
• “Which coworkers have been helpful since you arrived?”
• “Compare the organization to what we have explained it would be like.”
• “What do you need to learn to improve? What can the organization do to help you become more successful in your job?”
• “What’s been going well? What are the highlights of your experiences so far?”

Credits:

©joruba / 123RF Stock Photo
Tony Yeung
Mikhail Pavstyuk