Onboarding with AAA

I spent today with AAA University (the training and development team at the AAA) at their first trial run of a new employee onboarding training session (ie employee induction) . The session was attended by a mix of  long term employees and new starters, who were being asked to participate and provide critical feedback on the effectiveness of the program.

The session started with a look at what makes a brand great, which they explored by looking at some of the best know brands in the US. After looking at the adjectives that described these strong brands they then looked at the descriptors which also held true for AAA, and from there they looked at the descriptors which were unique to AAA. Very quickly the participants started to explore what made AAA great and how they contribute to that strength. Throughout the day they revisited how the brand was linked to each module, including values of employees, the history of AAA and the partnership structure of the ACA. Like the RAC, the AAA recognises that maintaining and building on the underlying brand strength is critical for the long term future of the clubs - and most importantly indoctrinates this into the employees as soon as possible.

The big advance of this program was to shift the content to be far more participatory (versus the previous model which was of the "sage on the stage" type). In effect the participants spent nearly 80% of the time self directed. Many of the exercises required the "new employees" to search on the intranet for the information to complete the exercises - as a result participants were being taught how to help themselves - and at the same time making the intranet far more relevant.

One other addition was the setting of teams at the start of the day - they did this on a diversity basis (participants were asked to create their own teams guided by a few simple rules) - these teams then stay together for the full two days of induction.  This appealed to me as I think it allows the teams to learn better, as you are not needing to constantly adjust your learning style with ever changing teams. I have personally experienced this style of cohort & sydnicate learning in the past and personally think it creates stronger long term bonds in each learning group.

One more day of onboarding to go, I think I may even pass! Until next time.