What To Do When You Feel Like You Have No Time To Train That New Team Member You Just Hired

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As busy business owners, we often hire when we're already drowning in client work and need a new team member to help take on some of the workload ASAP. And once you finally hire that new team member, you might not have the time to properly train them before setting them loose on some client work. Instead, you might just pass off some tasks that you expect might be easy for them to complete, especially if they're already an experienced bookkeeper.

But what often happens is that your brand-new team member doesn't meet your expectations, skips a step, or isn't following your process correctly. Which leaves you double-checking their work and spending more time following behind them than actually making progress on your work.

It can be super frustrating! I've been there, too.

And while I'm a HUGE fan of creating an internal training program for your team members, I also understand that sometimes there's just no time to create one before you need to bring someone on board.

In this blog, I wanted to show you how you can get new team members up to speed quickly so they can start taking on work fast, instead of making more work for you.

Onboarding Your New Team Member

When you make a new hire, it's so exciting! There's often this misconception that just because someone has the skills they need to do a job, they don't need to be trained.

And this simply isn't true! If you want to retain your team members AND have them live up to your expectations, you need to give them information and resources to help them do their job successfully.

That includes:

• Creating an internal training program

• OR hosting live training sessions

• Having a database of SOPs to help them execute tasks

• Inviting them to your project management system

• Giving them a tour of your tech stack/how to use it

Having a solid onboarding process for your team members will instantly set the tone for how you expect them to work in your company and empower them to be more confident in their role.

I know how easy it is to feel like there's no time to add all these extra steps, but once you have them set up — you're good to use them for every other hire you make! Investing time into an onboarding process actually helps you save time and keep your employees longer.

How To Quickly Get Your New Hire Up To Speed In Your Firm

I have a couple of super-helpful ways you can easily get your team members prepped and ready to take on tasks when you feel like you don't have time to train them.

1. Schedule Zoom Training Sessions

Scheduled sessions for training are so helpful to team members, but only if you have an agenda for what you plan to cover. If it's not clear what you're training them on, you might end up bouncing around too much and leaving them more confused than before.

When you set aside intentional time to train your new hire (or better yet, have another team member do it for you), sharing your screen over Zoom is a quick way to give them a glimpse into the actual tasks they'll be completing. They're essentially shadowing you in this phase, so make sure you're taking time to talk and narrate your thought process as you go through the steps.

Once they've shadowed you for a few sessions, give them the reigns and watch them do the work. Have them explain what they're doing every step of the way so you can hear their thought process and fill in any gaps.

Record these sessions and store the videos in a shared folder so they can access them whenever they need to review the material.

If you don't want to be on a call all day, record yourself completing tasks using Loom and save them as SOPs to start building up a database (this can be done in Google Sheets or something like Notion which is where I store outs).

Hint: When you name your SOPs, use keywords so they're easy to find in your spreadsheet using the Command + F function!

2. Be Accessible + Approachable

I've had team members tell me that they really appreciate having access to me when they need a question answered quickly. I'm not saying you need to be available 24/7 to answer questions, but during the training phase, you should absolutely be ready to answer questions and explain the thought process behind your answers.

This is meant to create a safe space for the employee to ask questions without worrying about being judged.

We do this with a dedicated Slack channel that's private to me and the team member (if you have anyone else on your management team, you can include them too!). Slack works well for how we like to work and fits well into our process, but you could also use email, Voxer, or whatever other method of communication makes sense for you!

3. Let Go of Perfectionism

Remember that if you're taking this approach with training your team member, it's not going to be perfect the first time. And that's fine!

The time and effort you DO put into coaching and leading your new team member will pay off in the long run because you'll feel more comfortable delegating your work. They'll feel more confident doing the work, and you'll feel confident that you'll get the results you expect. You have to start somewhere, and every new hire after this will get easier!

Ready To Delegate Your Work With Ease?

The very first step in successfully delegating work and getting your team members all on the same page is setting up a project management system for your firm. We use Asana and consistently see incredible results with our Kickoff with Asana for Bookkeepers & Accountants students who've decided to implement our methods.

If you're looking to set the stage for more efficiency and less stress around WHAT needs to get done or HOW to hand it off to anyone else, this is 100% for you. And if you think you can't delegate tasks because you're the only one who knows how to do it, I challenge you to feel that way after implementing my proven methods in your own firm!

Join the thousands of other firm owners inside of our signature program … and we have payment plans available.