Tips For Remaining Patient When Training a New Employee: Trainer, Trainee and Patience

Can you recall a time when you were a new starter and someone else had the task of training you? Perhaps it seemed that you were drowning in a sea of new faces. You may have felt intimidated by strange and different surroundings, as well as forbidding technological advances. Your new starter may feel exactly the same way.

You probably felt exasperated, asked a million questions and tried the patience of your trainer. Your new trainee may do the same thing and try your patience, too. No one who works with new trainees has perfect patience. Remember that trainers often learn patience through practice and time.  

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.” Saint Augustine

Consider the following tips for remaining patient when training a new starter.

Welcome your new starter appropriately.

Introducing yourself and welcoming your new starter appropriately, will help him or her to feel more comfortable. If you let your trainee know that you are approachable, he or she will begin to understand your role as a trainer and become aware that you are there to help resolve training issues immediately, rather than having him or her continually try your patience by attempting everything alone.  

Familiarize your trainee with his or her new, training environment.

When you familiarize your trainee with his or her new environment, it can become a new employee friendly place, rather than a place where there are monsters lurking behind every door. Fear can cause any trainee to be hesitant, make errors or to be unable to handle certain tasks, a reality that could make your work as a trainer more difficult and thus, try your patience. Addressing trainee fears immediately, rather than allowing them to escalate, will make your training task easier.           

Delineate your expectations of your trainee.

Most trainers are also multi-taskers. As a trainer, you have certain expectations of your new trainee. He or she may not be aware of what they are, but delineating them or depicting them graphically, will give him or her appropriate guidelines to follow, allowing you the freedom to carry out other tasks, rather than try your patience by repeatedly asking questions.

Take appropriate breaks.

As a trainer, you may or may not know your own level of patience. Learn to recognize symptoms of stress when you are training a new starter. You may find that allowing your trainee appropriate breaks and taking breaks yourself, gives you both a sense of well-being. As you start to work together again, your patience level should be higher. Allowing yourself or your trainee to become frustrated is seldom a good idea. 

If you are a trainer who tends to be impatient, perhaps it has to do with your own personality or skills. You may not be able to change your personality, but upgrading your skills prior to starting a training session with a new trainee may help. Your new trainee may have skill levels that surpass yours. You can learn from him or her making a training session beneficial to both of you.

Patience is a virtue, but something learned through experience too.