Organizations are constantly generating and gathering vast amounts of data. And this data is critical to the success of the organization. The amount of data makes it challenging for employees to understand and use the data effectively. New employees often face a steep learning curve when it comes to understanding the data and the policies related to the data and the organization’s terminology. To avoid employee confusion and inefficiency, an organization must have effective data-related employee onboarding and training. Data-related training is necessary for clear and consistent organization terminology as well as data quality and compliance. This blog post will reinforce the need for this onboarding and training as well as discuss implementing a check list to help with onboarding including the questions that new employees need answeed and the setting up of a training schedule.
It’s been a while since we have done an onboarding blog post. Check out our “Right Away, Give New Employees Training on Data Governance” blog post. In that post we break down the parts of initial training: basic information sheet, first training, assignments, follow-up training, and resource page.
Some thoughts on onboarding and training:
- New employees must understand that data governance and good data management practices are part of their job expectations and responsibilities.
- You want the onboarding experience to be consistent for all new hires.
- You want the new employee to embrace the data culture of the organization.
- Training resources can exist in various formats: web pages, videos, documents, blog posts, etc. Each organization should determine the most effective format and content for its data-related training materials.
- The organization should provide as much self-service training materials as possible. A simple search of the business glossary in the knowledge base saves time and effort as well as understanding the data in a report from a report specification.
- You want the training materials and the onboarding process to be improved all the time. It is not a one-time project. Periodically review and update the materials and process at least once a year. Gather feedback from the new employees so that materials and process can be improved.
- A well-maintained data governance knowledge base that contains terminology, data system information, and report specifications simplifies onboarding and training.
- Every organization is different and therefore the onboarding and training must be tailored to the organization. And the training should be tailored to the new employee’s function and department.
- We suggest having a data governance training check list for the new employee. The check list should be tailored to the new employee’s function and department.
- Also there should be a data governance training outline schedule tailored to the new employee. Remember when creating this schedule that the new employee will have other items that they will be trained on.
Here’s an example of a 4-week training outline schedule:
Week 1
- The new employee should review the data governance basic information sheet given to them by the Human Resources Department
- The new employee should attend an initial data governance face to face discussion and training session which should answer these questions:
- What is data governance and data intelligence?
- Why do we need data governance at our organization?
- Who do I contact if I need help with data governance? Who is my functional department data steward?
- Where is the data governance knowledge base and how do I access it?
- How do I get training on the data governance tool, such as the Data Cookbook, that we use at the organization?
- How do I make a data request such as needing a new report? And what other points of engagement with data governance are there?
- Where are additional data governance resources located?
- What assignments (check list items) are to be done over the next few weeks?
- The new employee should make a list of any terminology that is unclear to them
- The organization should setup the week 4 face to face meeting
Week 2
- The new employee should watch the data governance overview video
- The new employee should access the data governance resources page (such as datacookbook.com/dg) and / or the organization’s data governance portal page
- The new employee should access terminology knowledge base and review organization terminology
- The new employee should check the terminology knowledge base for unclear terminology noted in week 1
- The organization should be available to answer any questions the new employee might have
Week 3
- The new employee should submit data requests for any unclear terminology that was not located in the knowledge base
- The new employee should review data policies including those regarding data sharing and data security
- The organization should be available to answer any questions the new employee might have
Week 4
- Second face to face meeting should occur where the organization and the new employee:
- Review any data governance-related questions that the new employee has
- Review any questions regarding the data governance tool, such as the Data Cookbook, including accessing the knowledge base
- Review the status of any data requests made by the employee
- Discuss any terminology that the new employee is confused about
- Confirm that the employee has done the necessary check list items
- Get feedback from the new employee on how the onboarding and training can be improved
- If necessary, assign additional check list items
- The organization should make sure that the new employee is on any future data governance-related communications
For an organization to succeed at data governance and data intelligence, it needs a trained staff and excellent data-related communications to those involved with data. It needs engagement by all employees. Feel free to access our “Here’s Some Data Intelligence Resources Regarding Communication and Training” blog post. We hope that you found this blog post beneficial.
IData has a solution, the Data Cookbook, that can aid the employees and the organization in its data governance, data intelligence, data stewardship and data quality initiatives. IData also has experts that can assist with data governance, reporting, integration and other technology services on an as needed basis. Feel free to contact us and let us know how we can assist.
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