No matter the industry, all great onboarding managers and trainers have these five qualities or personality traits in common.

1. You can easily communicate ideas

This seems pretty obvious but one of the strongest qualities a trainer must have is the ability to communicate with the new hire.

This doesn’t mean having small talk with the new hire and finding out their likes and interests. Strong communication means that you connect with the individual in a way that creates a comfortable work environment and can clearly articulate how to start a task, the steps to getting it done, when to complete it by, and why this needs to be done.

You won't just be communicating with the new hire either. You have to strategically communicate with your co-workers and bosses to draft an effective training plan for new employees.

2. You are comfortable with change

When training new hires, the training session for one hire is not necessarily going to be the same for the next.

You can automate the way that certain standard information is delivered and consumed using Trainual, but you have to realize that some individuals are more hands-on or visual learners while others are just fine reading through pages of instructions.

This must be able to recognize a new employee's learning habits early on and adapt in a way that helps them master their job no matter their learning type.

3. You're Not Afraid of Confrontation or Evaluation

Top training leaders know that honest evaluation and sometimes negative feedback is a necessary evil. Nobody likes pointing out when something was done wrong, but it's bound to happen and if you let it slide, you're setting the new hire up for future failure.

Having a checklist with tasks that the new hire should perfect by a certain time gives you an easy way to evaluate if the new hire needs additional training or if they’re all good to go.

Another way to evaluate others is a quick, 5-minute chat with the new hire to check-in, make sure no mistakes have been made, and answer any questions they have.

But don't assume that the new hire will ask questions when they are having difficulty adjusting in the workspace. You must be tuned in enough to realize when they might have a question and try to help before they have to ask.

4. You Have a LOT of Patience

Training takes lots of patience. You should be able to work with new hires that catch on real fast and those that get up to speed at a slower pace.

For new hires that take a little longer, don’t make them feel bad for it. The worst thing to do in that scenario is rush them.

Be open to going through steps two, three, or even four times and not complain or make a fuss of it because more often than not, the slower pace learners make fewer mistakes in the long run.

New hires tend to ask questions about the same topic a million different times, and we've found that when you take the time to document the answers in a system like Trainual, you eliminate having to repeat yourself, and they have a reference tool that allows them to rely less on asking you.

5. You Once Thought You’d be a Great Teacher

If you have all the following qualities above, once upon a time, you probably thought that being a teacher might be the career for you.

Well, if you do have these qualities then you likely would have been a great teacher and now training can be your teaching experience! Without all the rowdy kids…

Teachers and trainers have similar personality traits that allow them to be able to transfer knowledge from themselves into the student or employee with as little friction as possible.

Now What?

There are so many qualities that go into being an impactful professional trainer but the core traits listed above (even if you never thought of teaching) is what new hires strive to see in their onboarding managers and training leaders.

Studies have shown that 68% of employees say attention to training and development is the most important workplace policy.

However, only 37% of employees indicated they were “very satisfied” with their jobs, and 40% of employees who receive poor training leave their positions within the first year.

Proper attention to hiring practices and training is nothing to push to the side, and if businesses don’t want to see high turnover in employees, they must put in the effort to produce high-quality, engaging training content purpose-built to satisfy and retain employees.