Lockport Park District: Onboarding

Challenge

Develop consistent onboarding training for new employees and seasonal hires

The Lockport Park District hires a large percentage of their employees as seasonal help. For every new employee hired, a division supervisor trained them face-to-face, armed with a printed listing of topics to cover.

Individual supervisors ran down their topic sheets like a checklist, each one putting their own spin on the material. Some blitzed through the training in 15 minutes, others took close to 2 hours.

In particular, they struggled in two key areas: the time their supervisors spent delivering training, and ensuring a consistent message. New hires were also given a CD containing company policies for them to “read at home” after completing their training with the supervisor.

The training covers key pieces of information off of the mandatory paperwork required for our district, and compiles it in a way that the message is easily received. With the amount of people getting hired, it has eased the supervisors of a portion of training. This has helped our district be more efficient and able to hone in on the department specific trainings…I can personally say that it has decreased my 1.5 hour training orientations to 30 minutes!

Learn more about our Course Conversion services and how custom eLearning Development can improve employee efficiency and success.

Solution

eLearning course incorporates actual policies and scenario-based activities

ThinkingKap created an eLearning course that presented core training in six key areas. The training covered everything from personnel and workplace policies, to equipment, workplace, and personal safety.

The course combined activities and educational imagery, with images from the Lockport facilities, to provide a familiar and tailored feel. We also embedded segments of the Park District’s actual policies into the course, and partnered them with scenario-based activities. This gave learners an opportunity to practice finding policy information on their own, and ensured the Park District that new employees had, in fact, reviewed the policies.

Documenting this information was an important compliance requirement for the Park District.

Approach

Combined activities with images from the Lockport facilities and segments of actual policies in the course

Lockport Park District Onboarding work sample

To add a personal touch, the course used a mentor who served as the main presenter throughout the course.

To align with the Park District theme, a “path” was used organize content and to visualize learner progress.

Impact

Reduced supervisor training time by 66% and achieved streamlined compliance documentation requirements

Key learner outcomes

Reduced supervisor training time by 66%
Delivered consistent onboarding messaging across organization
Improved employee productivity through practical policy application
Enhanced policy comprehension through scenario-based learning
Achieved streamlined compliance documentation requirements

Optimizing supervisor time while ensuring consistent onboarding throughout the organization

By using eLearning, ThinkingKap significantly reduced the impact onboarding had on the day-to-day responsibilities of supervisors. We were able to reduce the time supervisors spent delivering training by two-thirds.

The interactive eLearning course ensured every new employee received a consistent message. It also helped new employees to get off on the right foot, making them more productive. By combining scenarios with excerpts from actual policy documents, learners were required to find and apply the aspects of the policies to their jobs. This taught them how the policies impacted their responsibilities, not just what the policies said.

Additionally, including the policies in the course allowed the Park District to document individual user completion in a way that satisfied their compliance requirements.

Transform your onboarding into a powerful catalyst for employee success.

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