How to Improve Onboarding in Behavioral and Community Healthcare: Automate Your Training

Over the years, online learning has come very far in how social workers, psychiatrists, nurses, physicians, counselors, and other healthcare practitioners use technology to maintain their credentials and stay current on best practices in their field. For healthcare organizations, the way online learning is managed—using a learning management platform—has also come very far, especially regarding the assigning, tracking and reporting of course completions and compliance. Automated training—training that is automatically assigned, completed and tracked within a learning management platform—can help you greatly improve the onboarding process at your organization.

Studies have shown that a good, efficient onboarding process can greatly improve employee retention. But how can you get started with improving these processes?

How automated training can improve the improve onboarding process

In addition to making tracking and reporting easier, automated training streamlines onboarding because employees can complete their compliance training online. This reduces seat time so they can contribute on the floor more quickly. Included in compliance training is your ability to upload, revise, and assign policies and procedures to your new hires, who can instantaneously review and attest to them directly within the learning management platform.

Other innovations have been introduced since the boom of online learning that are important to consider not only for ongoing staff development, but for improving onboarding processes, when having the right tools to prepare newly hired staff for success matters the most. These innovations use technologies that can:

• Bridge the knowing-doing gap—prove that your staff can recall and correctly apply information they learn
• Tailor courses to be role-specific or personalized based on each employee’s needs
• Boost knowledge retention using neuroscience-based techniques to reduce the forgetting curve

A learning management platform saves a lot of time and money—especially if you usually arrange off-site training events or coordinate speakers to conduct live training events at your organization. Online learning enables busy staff to complete training anytime, anywhere, and on any device. It can also be targeted to the employee’s specific needs so they are only spending time learning what they need to know versus what they already know.

Another critical area where a learning management platform shines is during an audit. If you automate your compliance training, your new hires can easily complete all the mandatory courses online during onboarding. With the click of a few buttons, you can have a transcript report ready when an auditor arrives to easily prove compliance for new staff—and remove the hassle of chasing down the attendance sheets and training certificates you might currently manage in a spreadsheet.

What your behavioral or community health center should look for in a learning management platform

There are countless benefits to using a learning management platform. If your organization is ready to improve onboarding processes, make sure your new learning platform includes capabilities and features that fit your organization’s specific needs.

For example, an learning management platform should enable you to:

• Upload your own PowerPoint training files and assign them to staff
• Create exams that your staff must complete after finishing a course
• Access a variety of accredited courses that meet your federal and state regulations
• Assess the competencies of your staff and assign training based on the results
• Send automated course reminders so you don’t have to do it yourself
• Track and report course completions and compliance
• Manage and track non-training requirements, like license renewal dates or random drug screens for drivers
• Policies and procedures management

Automating your training with a learning management platform is truly a win-win for everyone, including for the individuals in the communities you serve. If you don’t have a learning management platform currently and are interested in learning more, read this overview to discover how it can benefit your organization.

For more tips on how to improve the way you hire highly skilled behavioral and community healthcare staff, download the free guide, How to Become an Employer of Choice When You’re Short on Staff and High on Turnover. Inside, you’ll find an in-depth walkthrough on hiring, interviewing and onboarding, along with helpful templates and worksheets.