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Effective employee onboarding supports new hires and business goals

Client: JOANN Industry: Retail Get in touch

Onboarding and training new hires is crucial for employee retention. We partnered with JOANN to create a seamless online training initiative that supported in-person learning and development.

Challenge

With over 800 stores nationwide, JOANN needed a way to consistently train and retain employees across the country. They came to us for an efficient, cost effective way to onboard employees to all the processes and procedures for store operation – one that didn’t require a lot of hands on time from key store personnel. Our past work to establish JOANN's employer brand and create recruiting materials for stores and distribution centers helped us create onboarding materials to streamline training while showing employees that JOANN was invested in their success.

Services:

Content development Illustration Print & digital design User experience planning User interface design eLearning course development

Onboarding and training new hires is crucial for employee retention. We partnered with JOANN to create a seamless online training initiative that supported in-person learning and development.

Services:

Content development Illustration Print & digital design User experience planning User interface design eLearning course development

Challenge

With over 800 stores nationwide, JOANN needed a way to consistently train and retain employees across the country. They came to us for an efficient, cost effective way to onboard employees to all the processes and procedures for store operation – one that didn’t require a lot of hands on time from key store personnel. Our past work to establish JOANN's employer brand and create recruiting materials for stores and distribution centers helped us create onboarding materials to streamline training while showing employees that JOANN was invested in their success.

Gamified store map used for first day orientation scavenger hunt with 11 departments commonly found in JOANN stores. Map features colorful, playful illustrations and icons.
3 pages detailing tasks to complete from the first day orientation scavenger hunt. Pages include the department name and icon as well as information needed to complete the task at hand.
A close up of someone sitting in front of a laptop. The laptop screen shows the opening slide to the Cutting Counter online course.

Strategy

We started with content. Our team reviewed existing training from JOANN and reorganized and edited for clarity and readability. Then, we brainstormed how to transform the content from flat text on a screen or page to something engaging or interactive. Our direction for the project began to take shape as we gamified the store layout and departments information into a scavenger hunt with knowledge-based quizzes to reinforce skills. Since each and every store is different, the design utilized bright, stylized and playful illustrations to grab the attention of the trainee.

Our designers and developers created a custom template for building eLearning onboarding courses. We utilized the template to develop a series of interactive online classes that were consistent from start to finish. The courses utilized photography of real team members on the job to build authenticity and further establish consistency with the recruitment stage of the employee lifecycle. We used a software program that was compatible with JOANN’s internal network allowing their Learning & Development team to seamlessly distribute the courses companywide through JOANN’s learning management system, while maintaining the courses independently.

Results

We provided a templated system that enables the JOANN team to quickly and easily create new cohesive and consistent courses as needed. New JOANN employees are now able to get started with the retailer quickly via computer then work with managers and team members to reinforce the concepts through hands-on, in-person training. As a result, our client is able to cut back on the time managers spend training and their new employees can learn the information at their own pace. Win, win!

 

Do you need help onboarding new employees to the team? Let’s talk!