Ld Onboarding Training Plan

---
name: ld-onboarding-training-plan
description: Plans a new hire's first weeks around the real work, producing a week-by-week learning path, the real tasks a new hire must handle, buddy sessions and sign-off by doing the task with a person. Use for "run ld-onboarding-training-plan", "onboarding training plan", "new employee training plan", "new hire ramp-up", "30 60 90 day training", "onboarding buddy programme", "new hires are not ready", "time to productivity", part of the AI for L&D and Corporate Training Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Onboarding Training Plan

## When To Use
Ramp-up takes six months and stakeholders blame the talent, while new hires finished every onboarding module and still cannot handle the exceptions. Use this to plan the job-skill part of onboarding for one role, week by week. It answers one question: which real tasks must a new hire handle, in what order, with whom beside them, and how do we know they are ready for each?

## When Not To Use
If you are sequencing a programme's modules for many roles, run Curriculum Map. If the new hire needs a manager's support around one course only, Manager Follow-Up Kit is enough.

## Inputs
- The role and the real tasks it handles, including the exceptions that trip people up (SME notes if you have them).
- The existing onboarding content (modules, policies, systems access), who could be a buddy (by role) and how long the path should run.
If you have none of this, I start from the role title and five tasks and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
The four Cs of onboarding from Bauer's 2010 SHRM Foundation guideline (R13): compliance, clarification, culture and connection. That guideline covers onboarding broadly, so the job-skill part runs on scenario practice with real problems, from Merrill 2002 (R11). The failure it prevents: a first month of policy videos and system tours, full completion, and a new hire who meets their first real exception alone on a live case.

## Workflow
1. Ask at most three questions: which tasks must a new hire handle alone and by when, which exceptions cause the most trouble, and who does the work well today (by role)?
2. List the real tasks, then order them from simpler to harder: the usual case first, then the common exceptions, then the rare costly ones. A task nobody can describe yet goes back to the SME.
3. Map each week, over a length the user sets ([weeks]): the tasks in focus, the learning and practice for them (a scenario from real cases before the live task), and which of the four Cs the week covers. Compliance is placed where it is needed, not front-loaded.
4. Clarification and culture: what "good" looks like in the role, stated plainly, and the unwritten norms people learn by watching; put them in the weeks where the tasks show them.
5. Connection: schedule buddy sessions at [cadence], each tied to a task that week (watch, then do together, then do while the buddy watches).
6. Sign-off per task: the new hire does the task with a person beside them, who confirms readiness to do it alone or names what to practise next. Never a quiz, never a score.
7. Mark compliance and policy items for review: check with a qualified adviser on what is legally required and when.

## Output Format
```markdown
# Onboarding Training Plan
Role: [role] | Length: [weeks] | Plan owner: [role] | Buddy: [role]
## Real tasks, simpler to harder
| # | Task | Usual case or exception | Handle alone by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [task] | [usual / exception] | [week] |
## Week by week
| Week | Tasks in focus | Learning and practice | Four Cs covered | Buddy session |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [tasks] | [scenario, module, job aid] | [compliance / clarification / culture / connection] | [date and task] |
## Task sign-off (readiness, done with a person)
| Task | Done with | Date | Ready to do alone / practise next |
|---|---|---|---|
| [task] | [role] | [date] | [ready / what to practise] |
Compliance items, each marked "check with a qualified adviser": [policy or rule, week, owner].
## Decision
[Hiring manager] and [L&D lead] approve the task order and buddy time by [date].
```

## Done When
- Every task sits in a week, ordered from simpler to harder, exceptions included.
- Every week has practice before the live task, and a buddy session.
- Each of the four Cs appears somewhere in the path.
- Every sign-off is done by doing the task with a person.

## Quality Bar
- Modules support tasks; a module tied to no task is cut or moved to reference.
- Buddy time is booked in the calendar, not "as available".
- Durations are placeholders the user sets; no benchmark ramp-up time. Legal items say "check with a qualified adviser".
- Sign-off is readiness for a task, done with a person; it never grades or ranks a new hire.

## Next
Run ld-kirkpatrick-evaluation-plan (Kirkpatrick Evaluation Plan) to decide how you will know onboarding works.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).