10 Topics To Include In Your New Manager Training
Corey Bleich
🍿 5 min. read
This isn’t your grandparent’s new manager training.
Today’s managers don’t look like the bosses from the turn of the 21st century. And today’s manager training? That should look different, too. Here are ten topics to include in your new manager training (and why this type of training is still vitally important in 2020 and beyond).
Is new manager training still important?
This isn’t your grandparent’s new manager training – literally.
Some statistics suggest that in just two years, millennials will leapfrog over Generation X to make up 50% of the workforce, and 75% of it by 2025. They are stepping in to fill the void left by Baby Boomer managers and leadership.
But is this type of training still important? Short answer? Yes: new manager training is still important. With caveats. Here's how to roll out manager training for this newer workforce.
Management training programs have to be personal
When moving your new manager training into the future, you need to get personal. Companies already use personality indexes and profiles to identify employee strengths, and your manager training design should use these, too.
How are you adapting your manager trainings to the unique profiles of your managers?
New manager training should be on demand (and mobile)
Only just-in-time training delivered when managers need it (and where they are) is relevant or effective.
Think mLearning, experiential learning, and other types of learning to capture (and keep) millennial attention.
Management training needs to take the long view
In industries that are constantly shifting, management training needs to as well.
It should also focus on building soft skills and developing relationships over the long haul versus teaching a static set of technical skills.
New manager training should cycle
Instead of dumping information in one boot camp-style training session, consider the more effective cycle of training-application-assessment-training.
This type of training does more than transmit information. It builds skills that managers can apply in multiple situations.
Which topics should new manager training cover?
If you update your new manager training for the current workforce with these guidelines in mind, you'll watch your managers step into their own.
Beyond the focus and style of your training, which manager training topics should you cover? Start with these ten manager training topics:
- Industry-specific regulations
- Creating an inclusive workforce
- Conflict resolution
- Cybersecurity
- Hiring and firing
- Nurturing talent, coaching, and employee retention
- Emergency procedures
- Identifying training needs
- Accessibility requirements
- What it means to manage
1. Industry-specific regulations
There is no getting around training new managers in the industry-specific regulations that apply to your company. Even experienced managers may need a refresher, especially in industries that are heavily regulated and always-changing.
Consider push notifications in a geofence for managers who work on jobsites out of the office, or other types of microlearning that can be accessed when needed.
2. Creating an inclusive workforce
An inclusive workforce is one that accepts and embraces the differences of all employees. It also focuses on the idea that employees in this type of workforce are happier, more productive, and more likely to stick around.
Train new managers in the subtle art of nurturing diversity in the workplace for the benefit of everyone.
3. Conflict resolution
As workplaces change and become more diverse, conflicts can arise.
While conflict can be challenging, when properly managed and resolved, the understandings reached can actually and eventually strengthen the company. Manager training must include conflict resolution for this to occur.
4. Cybersecurity
Your IT team are the specialists, but your new managers need a working knowledge of the cybersecurity policies and procedures for you company, especially if they have access to more sensitive information.
5. Hiring and firing
Your human resources department may manage hiring and firing, but excellent managers are often involved in this, too.
Your company has systems in place regarding hiring of employees and letting them go when needed. Make sure new manager training includes an overview of these practices. Less experienced managers might benefit from training on how to interview or hire new employees as well.
6. Nurturing talent, coaching, and employee retention
These three big topics are all related and a crucial part of new manager training. When developing your training, consider how your new manager training can:
- Help your new managers identify the particular gifts and talents of employees?
- Teach managers how to coach less experienced employees through challenging work?
- Empower managers to retain valuable and highly-skilled employees?
Beyond all the practical parts of management training programs, the bottom line is people. Managers need to cultivate skills to support their people, and the appropriate training can help with this.
7. Emergency procedures
New manager training must include your company’s plan of action when it comes to workplace safety. What procedures are in place for things like fire, natural disasters, and active shooters?
Don’t expect your new manager to know automatically how to manage employees in these crisis situations. Give them the tools they need to lead well.
8. Identifying training needs
Good management training programs include helping new managers recognize gaps in their employees' knowledge.
This means either teaching new managers how to conduct a training needs analysis, or helping them to identify training needs informally and working with instructional designers to address those needs.
9. Accessibility requirements
These days, training for all employees must be accessible. Manager training needs to include what training accessibility requirements are, and how a company’s eLearning can meet the needs of all employees. Even if the new manager isn’t responsible for designing or delivering training, it’s their job to ensure that the training needs of their employees are met.
They must further be proactive in creating an accessible workplace for all employees, as we covered in our recent ADA training post.
10. What it means to manage
Chances are good your new manager was hired because they have demonstrated their managerial prowess, but what about brand-new managers with less experience and loads of potential? Their management training might need to include things like:
- How to manage time
- The best way to delegate tasks
- How to build trust and respect with employees
Develop your management training program
In a perfect world, new managers would come fully formed to your company with all the relevant skills in place. In reality, our rising millennial workforce is taking over with a different set of strengths and expectations than their predecessors.
At EdgePoint Learning, we meet today’s managers where they are. For any stage of manager training design, get in touch to see how we can help.