My daughter Katy recently attended a baseball game with a group of friends. One of the pitches hit the catcher in the shoulder and bounced off. Katy cried out in alarm, “The squatty dude is hurt!”
Her friend Jorge looked at her in alarm, exclaiming, “Oh Katy!” and threw his head in his hands. He sat up with a deep sigh, and said “What is the squatty dude called?”
“Uhh… I don’t know.”
“The Catcher. What is the guy called who is holding the ball?”
“Uhhh… the thrower?”
“He is called the pitcher, because all players throw.”
“Ohhh!” Katy said.
By this point, all of her friends gathered around for Katy’s education. Another friend asked “What is the name of the guy with the bat?”
“Well, he’s the swinger, of course!”
Welcome to spring training! This is what your new employee feels like on their first day of work. Even if they had experience in their particular role in the past, they don’t know your company’s culture and they don’t know some of the terminology and language that your people use. What’s more, they don’t know the “inside jokes” that come from day-to-day interactions with coworkers and special events with the organization; the new employee barely knows where the bathroom is!
Training a new employee is much more than just showing someone where the files are saved and how to process reports. It’s an opportunity to welcome a new person into the fold and show them the best of your organization: to demonstrate the knowledge and experience of your team members and to showcase the bond that those people have when they’re interacting with each other and doing their jobs.
Bless Katy’s friends for filling her in on terms that she didn’t know. Yes, they laughed at her, but she laughed right along with them. They formed a bond with each other because her friends took the time to train her!
And when Jorge asked her “Do you know who the Kansas City Royals are?” she replied (in true Katy fashion), “Of course! They are the baseball team that won the… uhh… really, big game…”
Jorge has his work cut out for him…