Why employee onboarding is so important for the automotive industry

When bringing new employees on board, you’ll no doubt want them to settle into their new roles as quickly and easily as possible. There’s nothing worse than starting a new job and feeling completely lost on your first day!

A good onboarding program is the best way to prevent that, providing new staff members with practical, easy-to-use training tools to transition smoothly into their job – right from the very first day.

This is particularly important in the automotive industry, where large numbers of employees are often brought on board at one time. Whether staff are working in manufacturing, mechanics, logistics, or sales, they’ll need to be brought up to speed on critical workplace safety and compliance standards, before they even set foot on the factory or sales floor.

Having a clear onboarding program helps employees to hit the ground running in their new role, feeling engaged, motivated and supported in the workplace. It’ll also save your business time and money, with higher productivity and staff retention rates.

So what’s the best way to approach onboarding in the automotive industry? The answer lies in online training.

Here’s how you can use online training solutions to streamline the onboarding process in your automotive business.

Increasing employee development and engagement

Did you know that an effective onboarding program will allow an individual to reach proficiency in their new position up to 30% faster?

The right onboarding program will help to establish a solid working relationship between employers and their staff, right from the get go. It facilitates clear communication channels, with new hires knowing exactly where and who to turn to for help. And it sends the message that this is a company that cares about employee development.

There’s no doubt that employees are more likely to stay with companies who invest in their learning and development. So onboarding is a great way to reduce your staff turnover rates and secure the best talent for your organisation.

Adam Robinson, author of The Best Team Wins: Build Your Business Through Predictive Hiring, believes that “a great onboarding program is designed to educate and engage your employees so they can become productive members of your organization quickly and effectively. The more comfortable they feel, the more inclined they will be to stay employed at your dealers.”

In this way, “your dealership’s onboarding program is not only essential to its success, but can go a long way towards growing your culture and increasing your bottom line,” he says.

Improving workplace safety and compliance

As mentioned earlier, onboarding can also help staff to learn important regulations and procedures around workplace safety and compliance.

Online training courses are particularly useful in work environments such as the automotive industry, as they can be used to effectively reinforce important workplace safety and emergency procedures, ensuring a safer work and more compliant workplace for all staff.

Automotive employees often require a number of valid certifications and safety checks. Setting up an online platform that employees can use for onboarding is the best solution, for both staff and employers. New hires can make their way through all mandatory training modules, with the onboarding program keeping track of each individual team member’s progress and keeping record of staff who have (and haven’t) completed training.

This can also be really helpful further down the track. If an employee needs a refresher course in any particular area, WHS or compliance for example, they can easily go back to their onboarding modules and quickly find the training materials they need.

Using online training for the automotive industry

Ready to start onboarding your new hires in the easiest, most convenient, and cost-effective way?

If you’re interested in developing an effective new onboarding program, or making positive changes to improve your existing processes, you might like to check out our top tips for creating a successful onboarding program.

And get in touch with the Go1 team to start creating your own tailored onboarding program. Our online training courses can help you with more than just onboarding. You can use the Go1 platform to deliver ongoing, high-quality training to staff, across all areas of professional development, compliance, and workplace safety.