Dean Hugo Villar, UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies
In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving business landscape, onboarding methods are being adapted for a new work environment. Emerging technologies and changing industries have given rise to the concept of “everboarding” as a way to keep employees engaged and productive over the long term. When applied strategically and effectively, everboarding is a practice that can yield success for employees and companies.
What is Everboarding?
Everboarding refers to the continuous, ongoing training and development of employees throughout their tenure at a company, rather than just during the initial onboarding phase.
Unlike traditional onboarding, which typically occurs during the first few weeks or months of employment to help new hires acclimate to their roles and the company culture, everboarding is a sustained process. It ensures that employees continuously update their skills, stay informed about industry trends, and remain engaged with the company's evolving goals and strategies.
What does Everboarding Entail?
The concept of everboarding recognizes that learning and development are ongoing needs in a rapidly changing business environment. This approach can include various activities.
Regular training sessions and scheduled workshops or seminars serve to update employees on new technologies, methodologies, or company policies, while accessible learning resources, such as online courses, books, and other educational materials, make continuous improvement possible. Mentorship programs provide continuous opportunities to support career growth and skill development, and cross-functional projects offer opportunities to work on tasks outside of one’s usual role to gain broader experience and understanding of the company.
It is also crucial to create feedback mechanisms, like regular performance reviews and listening sessions, to help employees improve and align with company objectives.
Essential Steps to Implement Everboarding
Everboarding aims to foster a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability, helping employees stay motivated and prepared to meet new challenges. According to the Chief Talent Officer, three essential steps support everboarding:
Shifting the mindset
Everboarding reframes learning as a journey rather than a destination. This mindset should be introduced and reinforced across the organization, securing buy-in from all levels. Managers must set an example, actively participating in the process to encourage engagement from experienced and tenured employees who might resist further training.
Creating a central repository of materials
Maintaing a library of materials in a centralized location is vital for making educational content accessible. This repository should house all relevant content, from courses and videos to presentations and guides, allowing employees to access what they need when they need it. Materials should be bite-sized and easy to consume, enabling employees to absorb information at their own pace and integrate it into their workflow. Tapping resident subject matter experts to generate content can enrich the repository with practical, in-depth knowledge and free up learning and development teams to focus on strategic needs.
Virtual training solutions
Making an investment in virtual training solutions is required to support hybrid onboarding and training. A technology platform that supports asynchronous communication can facilitate connections and learning across different locations. Such a system should also track and measure learning effectiveness, monitoring course completion, employee competency, knowledge mastery, and content effectiveness. This data helps evaluate the impact of everboarding efforts on skills, employee retention, and leadership development.
How Higher Education Can Uniquely Resource and Support Everboarding
UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies can play a pivotal role in supporting everboarding. By collaborating with companies, universities such as ours can identify skill gaps in the workforce and help design customized training programs to address an organization’s unique and specific needs. This approach ensures that employees are always updating their skills and acquiring new ones to increase their effectiveness and productivity. By offering a variety of flexible learning options, from very short learning bites to online courses, experiential activities, and intensive workshops, employees can integrate continuous education into their busy schedules without disrupting their work.
Higher education institutions, like UC San Diego Extended Studies, are endowed with the necessary tools to organize content and deliver it in a variety of formats that best suit employers and employees. Expert university faculty and industry professionals provide high-quality instruction, bringing cutting-edge research and practical knowledge into the training programs. Additionally, universities have extensive libraries and digital resources that can be made accessible to employees, enhancing the depth and breadth of their learning. Customization options include expertise in different content delivery formats including asynchronous and on demand.
Certification programs and modular learning units further support continuous development by providing credentials and manageable, focused learning opportunities, while validating employees' efforts.
By forming partnerships with companies, universities can co-create training programs, facilitate mentorship opportunities, and organize networking events, thereby fostering a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability that is central to everboarding. This holistic approach ensures that employees remain engaged with their company's evolving goals and strategies, ultimately driving long-term success for both the employees and the organization.
Everboarding for Long-Term Impact
Creating a culture of learning is a long-term effort that leads to productivity and innovation for the company and personal and job fulfillment for employees. By embracing everboarding, companies can improve performance, employee engagement, and recruiting power, moving beyond stagnant, traditional onboarding methods.
Visit UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies Corporate Education and Customer Training to learn more about opportunities for everboarding.